The Submerged Tenth 



simply scandalous. Eggs lay rotting in the watery 

 streets, in one spot as many as fifteen together, the 

 result, probably, either of a storm or a squabble. 

 Debris of all sorts was strewn around with utter in- 

 difference to the public health. The houses were 

 low, untidy affairs, reeking with water and decay, 

 huddled together in hopeless confusion. So unstable 

 is their foundation that quite a mass of them had 

 drifted off in some storm, and were scattered about, 

 overgrown with green scum, the eggs washed and 

 bleached by the overlapping water. 



Conditions on the "west side" were hardly 

 better. The congestion was even worse. Nests in 

 close contact formed a considerable area, extending 

 in through the sparse grass to some more open water. 

 It seems to me that the nests in these Grebe cities 

 are smaller and more slovenly built than \vhere a 

 pair build a solitary nest. The wonder is how 

 such flimsy affairs can keep the eggs and the in- 

 cubating birds above water. The husband evi- 

 dently has to lead a street life, with little to occupy 

 him except to pick up food, and receive the 

 youngsters, which hatch one by one, and swim off 

 as soon as they are born. Perhaps he may antici- 

 pate the mother's task, and ride the little waits 

 around on his back. 



When at last we retired with the boat, the 

 Grebes swam back. Some resumed incubation, 

 while others in parties promenaded up and down 

 " Broadway," in some cases taking their children, 

 that had been hiding away in the grass, out for a 

 ride. It was an odd sight to see the crop of little 

 heads sticking out from under the parent's wing. 



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