172 THB CONDOR Vol. XX 



ominously. At last, dropping down, they paused, and then made a sudden rush 

 through the water! What did it mean? Was it likely that, on July 12, court- 

 ship rivalries were still rife? Were some second nests in prospect? 



When the grebes were scattered over the lake, their strange raucous calls 

 came back and forth over the water, some grating and screechy, some with a 

 tremolo, as quaw-kiter'r'rah, others strident and far reaching, as kree-wee, 

 kree-wee, or queer-wee' -queer-wee' . 



After having rested for a long time, at about 10 :40 some of the grebes be- 

 gan to dive, but at 11 :22 apparently all twelve were resting, heads on back out 

 on the water. When I stood up to start home, nine heads were raised, and a 

 moment later, not a grebe was to be seen. But sweeping the lake with my 

 glass a few moments afterwards, far out on the lake the missing submarines 

 Avefe discovered. 



Attempting to take a short cut to shore through a high stand of canes, 1 

 found them not only noisy, hard to crowd through, and disagreeably high 

 above my head, but offering doubtful footing between clumps. A strong sul- 

 phurous smell such as I had found in places in the sloughs came apparently 

 from springs, on the edge of which my boot came up out of soft mud, turning 

 the water black. Was it in such a place that the abandoned hip boots found 

 by a local hunter had suddenly been left behind? The firm tule bottom, even 

 with water knee high, seemed peculiarly attractive at the moment, and I found 

 myself quite willing to w r ade the long way home. 



The next morning I started back to see my grebes at seven o'clock, but 

 found the tule bays where they had been the day before, entirely deserted. 

 Crossing to the south side of the pass near the Big Ditch, however, I found the 

 twelve out on the lake, which w T as dotted with ducks. To get a good observa- 

 tion station 1 had to cross a few rods of open ground, and though I leaned over 

 in bovine imitation, at my approach, a goodly flock of ducks and two Black- 

 crowned Night Herons rose from a cool, tree-shaded bay. Putting down my 

 camp stool inside a small clump of willows grown knee high with snowberry 

 bushes, 1 looked through a waving willow screen upon the ducks and grebes; 

 but it was a little too open and the light was wrong to hide me from the lake. 

 Crows cawed over my head loudly enough to inform the entire population and 

 small flocks of ducks rapidly crossed the pass, wings whistling over my head ; 

 a Yellow Warbler started to light above me but fled in terror on discovering 

 me, and worst of all, the grebes acted as if they had seen me. Was I really the 

 most conspicuous object on the water front? Would those Crows never hush? 

 Oh for a Kingbird which, as the farmer declared, could "make a Crow hop!" 



Out on the lake a flock of ducks were resting, heads over shoulders, and 

 as I moved my glass down their line in counting them, I stopped abruptly, for in- 

 stead of a dusky oval rocking drowsily on the water, a slender, vivacious white- 

 necked grebe interrupted the count. Compared to the animated figures of the 

 grebes, the phlegmatic ducks looked positively lumpish, suggesting nothing so 

 much as rows of dark buttons on a card ! 



As I was two hours earlier than on the previous morning, while some of 

 the grebes were resting, most of them were pluming and diving. When I had 

 first entered my ineffective blind, the grebes had called a great deal, very 

 pointedly it seemed to me, for with long white necks raised they seemed to be 

 looking my way ; but after a time their high pitched kree-ka-ree, kree-ka-dee, 

 kree-ka-ree, or kee-eh-keek came from both sides of the pass, showing that al- 



