The Pied-billed Grebe 



and if you tarry too long, the swamp will become vocal with strange 

 gurglings and weird cries of incantation. Most memorable is an odd 

 bubbling giggle, keggy keggy keggy keggy keggy keggy keggy, etc., rendered 

 with great rapidity. 



If one happens upon a nest at the critical hour of hatching, the 

 distraught parent enters upon an entirely different behavior cycle. 

 Renouncing all prudence, she rushes up within a dozen feet or less. 

 First, sitting bolt upright upon the surface of the water, she flashes the 

 white areas of the flank-patches. Then she flounders over the surface of 

 the water, beating it with her wings and splashing spray in a fashion to 

 compel attention. Anon she dives ostentatiously, passing and repassing 

 in plain view beneath the surface. Upon emergence groans or shrieks arc- 

 emitted, and the distraught lure tactics recommence. 



Parental love is almost unfailing, but it is a marvel that the Grebe 

 mother knows her own. The chicks are evidently not fashioned after 

 the frivolous method suggested at the beginning of this article. Baby 



Taken in Santa Barbara 



BOLTING THE PARTY 



Photo by the Author 



Grebes, at least Pied-bills, are among the most astonishing of mortalities. 

 If nature had studiously devised the utmost difference between parent 

 and child, she could not have succeeded better. Instead of a dun- 

 colored lump, we have a handsome pattern of black and white in length- 

 wise stripes — like a skunk, one cannot refrain from saying, especially 



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