SAILOR BABIES. 



Birds, and birds, and birds ! Have you any idea how many kinds 

 of birds there are? I am very sorry you could not count them all. 

 And such queer fellows many of them are ! There are butcher-birds 

 and tailor-birds, soldier-birds — the penguins, you know, who stand 

 on the sea-shore like companies of soldiers, 'heads up, eyes front, 

 arms (meaning wings) at the sides " — and sailor-birds. It is about 

 one of the sailor-birds and his babies that I am going to tell you 

 now. She is called the Little Grebe, or sometimes, by her intimate 

 friends, the Dabchick. She is a pretty little bird, about nine 

 inches long, with brown head and back, and grayish-white breast. 

 She and her husband are both extremely fond of the water. " We 

 are first cousins to the Divers ! " they sometimes say proudly. 

 " The Divers are never happy away from the water, and neither 

 are we. It is very vulgar to live on land all the time. One might 

 almost as well have four legs, and be a creature at once ! ''' (The 

 Divei-s are a very proud family, and speak of all quadrupeds as 

 " creatures.") Mr. and Mrs. Grebe have very curiously webbed feet, 

 looking more like a horse-chestnut leaf with three lobes than any- 

 thing else. They are excellent swimmers and divers ; indeed, in 

 diving, the Great l^orthem Diver himself is not so quick and alert. 



