42 BULLETIN 107, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
which may indicate two broods. The question of whether this grebe 
regularly incubates its eggs or leaves them to be hatched by the 
warmth of decaying vegetation has provoked considerable discus- 
sion. Like all the smaller grebes, it frequently covers its eggs, with 
the soft material of which the nest is composed, when it leaves its 
nest; but this is not always done and often, when the bird is surprised 
and forced to leave in a hurry, it does not have time to do so. The 
pied-billed grebe is seldom seen sitting on its nest. I have exam- 
ined a great many nests and have attempted to approach cautiously 
enough to catch a glimpse of the incubating bird, but have never 
been able to see one on its nest; some other observers have been more 
fortunate. I believe that it incubates regularly during the greater 
part of the time. It is one of the shyest of the grebes; it slips away 
from its nest on the slightest alarm and keeps out of sight. I have 
watched for an hour or more within sight of half a dozen nests and 
not caught a glimpse of a single grebe, although they were un- 
doubtedly watching me all the time. 
Young—tThe young are very precocious and leave the nest soon 
after they are hatched; usually some of the young are swimming 
about before the last of the eggs have hatched. They are expert 
swimmers and divers, by instinct, though they can not remain under 
water more than a few seconds. I have taken recently hatched chicks 
out of a nest, which were too young to have been taught by their 
parents, and seen them dive and swim away or hide among the reeds 
with only their little bills protruding above the surface. Sometimes 
the parent bird carries them on her back where they cling tenaciously 
while she dives and brings them up again, none the worse for their 
ducking. They are truly little “ water witches” by inheritance. Rev. 
Manley B. Townsend writes me that, on June 24, 1910, he saw an 
adult, with young, chasing a muskrat on the surface of a slough in 
Nebraska, and raises the question whether these animals, which are 
generally considered to be strictly vegetarian in their habits, kill 
young grebes. Undoubtedly many are killed by pickerel or other 
large fishes and by snapping turtles or large frogs. 
Dr. Arthur A. Allen (1914) has written a very interesting ac- 
count of his studies into the family affairs of the pied-billed grebe, 
illustrating it with some remarkable photographs of this shy bird. It 
is well worth reading or quoting in full, but space will permit only 
the following extract: 
I was first directed to the spot by a friend who said that “ coots”” were nest- 
ing there. I was not a little surprised, therefore, when, after wading for a 
short distance along the edge of the pond, my attention was attracted by a 
splash in the water ahead, accompanied by a startled note like the syllable 
keck, and a few seconds later a grebe bobbed into sight. Instead of imme- 
diately sinking again, as one learns to expect of a grebe, it rose up on its legs 
