The Submerged Tenth 



finally accomplished it, pulled the precious instru- 

 ment on board, covered it with the rubber cloth, 

 and let the rain beat down. 



After the shower had passed, I proceeded to 

 arrange the camera again. Learning wisdom by 

 experience, I pushed the boat across to the opposite 

 side ot the area of grass where the nests were — a 

 distance of about the length of my thread — planted 

 a pole firmly in the muddy bottom, tied the thread 

 to it, -and then poled back to the camera with the 

 other end of the thread, which I fastened to the 

 shutter. In this way there was less danger of pull- 

 ing the thread prematurely, or of getting it en- 

 tangled in the grass. Then I rowed around to the 

 pole by way ot the open water, tied the boat to the 

 pole, and lay down on the bottom, thread in hand, 

 to await developments. 



After quite a while the Grebes began to swim 

 back in small parties, and promenade up and down 

 " Broadway." Two of them approached their nests, 

 and climbed up awkwardly upon them. Their 

 purpose was to cover their eggs more perfectly than 

 in their haste they had done when the boat was 

 approaching. As soon as this had been accom- 

 plished, they slid off into the water and rejoined 

 their companions. Unfortunately they were not 

 quite in the range of the camera, so I lost a splendid 

 chance for an interesting picture. I thought that 

 in the course of things they would all go back, but 

 time passed, and not another one did so. Finally I 

 rowed over there and uncovered some of the eggs, 

 hoping that this would induce the owners to come 

 and cover them. 



13 



