Grebes 



of their short wings and stretching of their short bodies, from 

 which their heads project as far as may be at one end and their 

 great lobed feet at the other. 



The nest of all grebes is an odd affair, one of the curiosities 

 of bird architecture. A few blades of "saw grass" may or may 

 not serve as anchor to the floating mass of water-weeds pulled 

 from the bottom of the lake and held together by mud and moss. 

 The structure resembles nothing so much as a mud pancake ris- 

 ing two or three inches above the water, though, like an iceberg, 

 only about one-eighth of it shows above the surface. A grebe's 

 nest is often two or three feet in depth. In a shallow depression, 

 from fourtoten, though usually five, soiled, brownish-white eggs 

 are laid, and concealed by a mass of wet muck whenever the 

 mother leaves her incubating duties. At night she sits on the 

 nest, and for some hours each day ; but at other times the water- 

 soaked, muck-covered cradle, with the help of the sun, steams 

 the contents into life. 



13 



