1 62 WINGED ROBBERS AND NEST-BUILDERS. 



them in sucli a way that their heads are toward 

 her tail and resting on her body. "Hold your 

 breaths ! " she says in gentle grebe baby-talk, and 

 away they go to the bottom. Here she skurries 

 after the darting minnows, or stops to gobble up 

 some delicious insect larva, or feeds on the juicy 

 water plants and algae growing abundantly on 

 these submerged grounds. What a strange ride, 

 and how long the grebe chicks remain beneath the 

 water! Evidently their breathing organs are so 

 formed by Nature that the usual necessity of fre- 

 quent respiration is not required. 



After two or three weeks schooling in the art of 

 diving and feeding, the young are left to shift for 

 themselves, and the parent bird day by day be- 

 comes less attentive, until finally she casts off the 

 tufts of bright feathers on her neck, and all house- 

 hold responsibilities, till the next year. 



Far out to sea, in the southern latitudes of the 

 Indian Ocean, more than a thousand miles from 

 the continent of Africa or Australia, lies an unin- 

 habited island named Desolation or Kerguelen. 

 Ships passing on their way from Europe or the 

 United States to Melbourne sail quite near this 

 lonely land and sometimes enter Christmas Har- 

 bor, at the northern end, for fresh supplies of 



