326 THE PIED-BILLED DOBCHICK. 



ing from the ground, and was afterwards given to my young friend, who 

 presented it beautifully prepared to me. 



While I was at Philadelphia, my learned and staunch friend the late Dr. 

 Richard Harlan, received two Pied-billed Grebes alive, which had been 

 caught in a fishing-net on Brandywine creek. We placed thenl in a large 

 tub of water, where we could see all their subaqueous movements. They 

 swam round the sides of the tub in the manner of the Puffin, moving their 

 wings in accordance with their feet, and continued so a much longer time 

 than one could suppose it possible for them to remain under water, coming 

 up to breathe, and plunging again with astonishing celerity. When placed 

 on the carpet, they ran awkwardly half erect, for a distance of a few feet, 

 tumbled over, and scrambled along with the aid of their wings. Nothing 

 could induce them to eat, and after a day or two of captivity, the little 

 creatures were taken to the Delaware, and set at liberty. 



This bird retires to rest on the floating beds of rushes met with in ponds, 

 or on the edges of the shores; and in such places you may see it sitting 

 upright, and dressing its plumage in the sunshine. They are extremely 

 unwilling to rise on wing, unless during their migrations, or when chasing 

 each other at the pairing season, which commences in March, when they 

 manifest a good deal of pugnacity. On such occasions, the males fly, dive, 

 and rise again on wing, in the manner of the Foolish Guillemot. While 

 travelling, they pass rapidly through the air, at times at a considerable 

 elevation, when the movements of their wings produce a sound like that of a 

 Hawk stooping on its prey. They are seldom found in parties of more than 

 six or seven. The idea of migrating by water is quite absurd. How long 

 would it take a Dobchick to swim from the mouths of the Mississippi to the 

 head waters of the Ohio; and when arrived there, after six or seven weeks 

 of constant paddling, how is he to proceed farther? Yet it is well known 

 that they breed farther north, and are general on the southern waters early 

 in October. 



The food of the Pied-billed Dobchick consists of small fry, plants, seeds, 

 aquatic insects, and snails; along with which the) r swallow gravel. 



They seem to form particular attachments to certain ponds or small lakes, 

 where, until they are closed by ice, you may always observe a pair or a 

 family. Opposite Henderson I regularly saw a couple every autumn, and 

 my friend the Reverend John Bachman has observed a group of them for 

 many winters in a small pond a few miles distant from Charleston. They 

 seem to have a dislike to swift-running streams, and when on them keep to 

 the eddies along the shores. The curious double pectination on the hind 

 part of their tarsi, seems to aid them greatly while sitting upright on the 

 broad leaves of water-lilies, on the surface of which I have observed indented 



