The Western Grebe 



then a nest is really covered. The eggs are subject to many vicissitudes. 

 Ravens esteem them great delicacies. Forster's Tern does not, apparently, 

 appropriate the eggs, but makes no scruple of driving the rightful owner 

 from a nest which she happens to covet for her own uses. One wonders 

 at the tame submission of a bird so splendidly armed ; but the Terns are 

 really very ugly, and have the advantage of being able to strike from 

 above. 



All these sources of annoyance, however, pale into insignificance 

 before the devastation 

 of a storm. Having a 

 Grebe colony of some 

 fifty nests under sur- 

 veillance — in Washing- 

 ton, it was — I once lay 

 out all night through a 

 series of thunder- storms 

 — which were the mak- 

 ing of the wheat crop 

 that year. In the morn- 

 ing I found that half of 

 the Grebe nests had been 

 wrecked and their con- 

 tents scattered, while 

 many of the remainder 

 were badly injured. Two 

 days later it was comical 



to note the confusion of ownership which necessity's law had brought 

 about. Scarce a well-made nest but contained eggs of homeless neigh- 

 bors. Two held seven, and one, eight, from half as many contributors. 

 In most cases these eggs were either abandoned outright by the one im- 

 posed upon, or else covered over by a new nest hastily improvised. 

 Finley records an instance, on Lower Klamath Lake, where sixteen eggs 

 had been piled up by discommoded mothers on a bed of dry tules, without 

 pretense of nest. 



Like all others of the group, the young of the Western Grebe tumble 

 out of the shell into the water, and the saturated mass of decayed vege- 

 tation which for a time held the eggs is never known as home. When 

 the brood is hatched, the young birds clamber upon the mother's back, 

 or the father's, as the case may be, and have a ride quite to their liking. 

 Nothing more convenient than this floating palace could be devised; 

 besides being a raft and a diving bell(e), it is fitted up with feather- 

 stuffed cushions for repose, and upon it meals are served frequently, 



Taken in Santa Barbara 



Photo by the Author 



WHERE HE RECENTLY WAS 



2043 



