THE CONDOR 



Vol. IX 



Up till he has made a complete revolution in his shell, and the end or cap of the 

 egg", cut clear around, drops off, and the youngster soon kicks himself out into the 

 sunshine. It does not take his coat long to dry; in fact, he often does not give it 

 a chance, for his first impulse seems to be to take to water and ride on his mother's 

 or father's back. The grebe chick never stays in the nest longer than a few hours. 



A chick that is just hatched 

 is clothed in the most deli- 

 cate coat of soft gray fur, 

 lighter below and darker 

 on top. 



A grebe is one of the 

 shyest of all birds to photo- 

 graph, for at the slightest 

 sound or motion, it disap- 

 pears like a flash. He 

 stays under water quite a 

 while, and next time he 

 appears he is probably fifty 

 yards away. For two dif- 

 ferent days we sneaked 

 about at the edge of the 

 water in the high tules and 

 tried for pictures of these 

 birds. We had to part the 

 reeds and build them up 

 about us so that we were 

 completely hidden and had 

 only a narrow place out of 

 which we could aim our 



THE NEAR BIRD IS CARRYING A CHICK ON ITS BACK, 

 THE HEAD OE THE YOUNGSTER JUST SHCWING 



camera. It took patience to sit 

 there in a squatted position for 

 hours at a time. The chances 

 for pictures were often few and 

 far betvreen; but vre had good 

 opportunities to study these wild 

 and war}^ birds. We could see 

 many things with the eye, by 

 watching thru the thick reeds, 

 that could not be caught with 

 the camera. 



The first daj^, as I lay hidden 

 in the tules waiting for a picture, 

 I saw a pair of grebes swimming 

 along only twenty feet distant. 

 I could catch glimpses of them 

 as they passed just bej^ond their 

 nest. One of the birds carried 



a chick on its back. The grebes have a way of taking their young with them, for 

 the little fellows lie on the back just under the wing-coverts with only the head 

 sticking out. At the slightest alarm, the mother raises the feathers a trifle and 

 covers the chick completely. One can readily tell when a grebe has a chick on 



YOUNG WESTERN GREBE EIFTED OUT OK WATER 

 ON END OF OAR 



