BY INLAND WATERS 105 



drained that the grebes, at least in the nesting sea- 

 son, seem to me far fewer than they used to be — 

 which is, I fancy, a fact as well as a trick of memory. 

 Probably they go farther north to breed. The 



Wood-ducks are fewer in number than they used to be 



grebe species is widely distributed and adaptable, 

 being found all the way from Argentina to Hudson 

 Bay. 



Neither is it a delusion of memory, I think, that 

 the wood-ducks are far fewer in number than they 

 used to be, like most other water-fowl. Gone are 

 those wonderful days when the first arrivals at 

 New Amsterdam found 'the swampy harbor shores 

 a paradise of ducks and geese and superb whist- 



