The Pied-billed Grebe 



Sometimes, instead of diving as quick as a flash, the bird, if it thinks 

 itself unobserved and wishes to escape, will settle down into the water 

 and disappear like a perforated tin can, without leaving a ripple behind. 

 Once under water, the diver makes marvelous progress, apparently 

 without assistance from the wings. And if it is undesirable to appear on 

 exhibition again, the bird requires only to thrust the tip of the bill as far 

 as the nostrils above the water from time to time. Thinking to test 

 their powers both of diving and flight, the author once pursued a company 

 of twenty-five Pied-bills about a two-acre opening in the ice of an eastern 

 lake. The birds would neither fly nor try to escape beneath the surround- 

 ing ice, preferring rather to play hide and seek with the man in the boat. 

 Some came to the surface and got a single gulp of air, while others fear- 

 lessly presented a broadside view, and others still paddled about with 

 only the head sticking out of water. They are said, however, to take 

 wing easily and to fly rapidly. On land they are unable to rise, and they 

 flounder about, therefore, quite helplessly. 



From Raven to Grebe is a far cry, and we have run the gamut of 

 interest in the Living Bird: but who shall say whether is greater, Grebe 

 or Raven, in the Father's sight? or who shall resolve us these mysteries 

 which we have here but dimly outlined? Who shall tell us whether 

 these be indeed our brethren, to whom we owe some sort of fealty, or 

 only clods a little more animated? For ourselves we dare to believe 

 that we are a part of deity, the Creative Infinite made flesh and become 

 self-conscious — ageless, timeless, imperishable, on-going. But who are 

 you, O Birds? toys for our idle hour? toys which we may cast aside, 

 broken perhaps, with none to chide us? Or are you — are you, perchance, 

 fellow gods? Perhaps — oh, just perhaps — we shall meet again in that 

 realm which is beyond appraisal — the Realm of Understanding. 



2062 



