174 THE CONDOR Vol. XX 



gone it seemed to give a little shake, probably compressing its air sacs to make 

 itself go completely under water. Sometimes it went below so rapidly that 

 in closing over it the water splashed. One that I saw, sank part way and then 

 dived. Occasionally when one went down, the light would sparkle around its 

 body. 



It was fascinating to try to count the grebes when part of them were div- 

 ing. 1 had to keep moving the glass back and forth, sweeping the surface of 

 the water, watching disappearing and reappearing forms, watching the swim- 

 mers which were changing places, and watching closely to count black ducks 

 when they changed into white-throated grebes. A flock of thirty-two were 

 counted one day, most of them black ovals. Who could imagine that those 

 lumpish forms were the exquisite silvery throated creatures of lightness and 

 grace? At one time the black spots seemed to have scattered out into families, 

 groups of four, six, ten, and fourteen swimming by themselves. Some seemed 

 smaller than others, but at my distance I could not be positive that the smaller 

 ones were grebes. 



What I took to be a family of eight were by the shore one day, amusing 

 themselves. Two or three of them acting as if they wanted to get up on some 

 of the high stones along the beach, stretched their necks and put their bills up 

 over the tops of the stones, but gave it up as if it were too high a step. One 

 of them playfully leaned down and poked his bill at a brother, when the broth- 

 er swam ahead out of his reach, leaving a beautiful glittering wake. Two out 

 on the lake stood close together, their heads held high, green weed dangling 

 from their bills. The long streamers seemed hard to manage but by throwing 

 them up by a quick toss of the bill, they were finally disposed of. 



After a series of loud grebe calls, as if one had cried, "Here's weed, come 

 on in, ' ' parallel lines of white spray showed a party of grebes running splash- 

 ing over the water, as an interested onlooker from the farmhouse piazza com- 

 mented, ' ' going some ! ' ' One ran splashing for a long ways and then rose and 

 flapped its wings. When another swam, gleaming light broke around its body 

 and its wake behind. Once hearing a kr'ree, kr'ree, I looked down and discov- 

 ered two of the distinguished looking birds moving their heads and necks 

 around. Both rose, as the two others had done before, and, side by side, rushed 

 through the water ; after which they dived. Perhaps the bath restored their 

 tempers, for when they came up face to face, they began peaceably preening 

 their feathers. 



AVhen watching the grebes through the glass, down the high bluff and off 

 over the lake, focusing on a seated grebe I was given a bewildered feeling of 

 space and moving water by having a gull or tern fly into the disk of the glass 

 and swoop down between, me and my bird. Floating between water and sky 

 the white terns and soft gray gulls gave a new sense of motion and depth to 

 the picture. 



There was an ever shifting panorama — gulls and black and white terns 

 wandering through the sky, strings of ducks winging their way to some dis- 

 tant point, and black, long-necked cormorants flying low over the water to or 

 from their nesting islands — all serving as background for the silvery-throated 

 grebes which, wherever they appeared on the lake became the center of inter- 

 est. The note of the white Common Tern was one of the principal sounds in 

 the air, its purring ter'r'r'r contrasting with the compelling kray-kree, kray- 

 kree, and the high pitched kree,ee — kr'r'ree~eek of the grebes. About thirty of 



