6 THE CONDOR Vol. XXI 
mentous water plant that suggested fine green seaweed, and waiting to see if 
the little fellow could manage it, finally helped him out with it. When one 
Red Top had had his portion, sometimes another would come up to take his 
turn, and once two of the quaint little Cootlings came together to swim close 
to their mother’s bill. Several times when fed they dropped part of what she 
had given them and she had to reach down and pick it up for them. A pretty 
picture she made when reaching around one by her side to feed him—as if she 
were putting a motherly arm around him. 
But the most interesting thing I saw was when she was diving a few feet 
out from the bank. Several times as she started away from the brood, one of 
the small Red Tops climbed up on her back for a ride. When he had gone far 
enough, she would rise and give a shake, and off he would go; whereupon she 
would dive and he would swim back to the bank. When both parents started 
to swim across the Coulee at one time, the rear one had a youngster on his back; 
and in the same way, when part way across, the small rider was quietly un- 
seated. 
‘ihe parent which I imagined to be the father—down the canes a few rods 
—went out and dived several times and when his followers did not appear, ate 
what he had brought, himself; though later he dutifully hunted them up to 
feed them. After a time, however, when the mother, if it were she, was diving 
by the shore, the father, if it were he, swam off alone across the Coulee to take 
a well-earned rest. 
Meanwhile a young Coot, doubtless belonging to another brood, as it had 
lost most of the red of the head and was larger than those I had been watching, 
on seeing a motherly looking Duck swim by, started to follow; upon which the 
old Coot who was still patrolling the shore immediately swam down the line 
of canes and recalled all straying nestlings. That she was patrolling the shore 
and teaching caution was very evident. When a familiar Duck flew close 
overhead no one paid any attention, but when a strange hoarse note—probabtiy 
from a Holbell Grebe—was heard, the young promptly disappeared in the 
eanes. And when a Marsh Hawk flew over ealling, the mother made a perti- 
nent remark that apparently kept the brood close to the protecting cover, 
while she swam outside looking carefully both ways. When a red necked Hol- 
beeli came up from below on her side of the Bridge, she eyed him intently, 
swimming alongside the canes with her brood till entirely satisfied. When a 
Bittern with wide brown wings flapped low across the water, the Coulee was 
suddenly bare of all inhabitants, and I inferred that he was an unusual visitor. 
The Grebe which excited the scrutiny of the mother Coot, was seen two or 
three times from the Bridge, and its cluck was given as it came up from be- 
low, its black crown so wet that it flattened widely. Beside its cluck its ‘‘erow 
note’’ was heard once. In preening it leaned over showing the characteristic 
white Grebe breast, and when it went below, large ripples circled out from its 
vanishing point. It was probably a visitor from the west Sweetwater lakes, for 
when I saw it last it was swimming down the Coulee toward the lake. As it 
swam it helped itself in the familiar manner, moving its neck back and forth. | 
While the Coulee was bare, one day, two small Grebes with the pointed 
crests and gentle ways of the Eared came up from below and swam along side 
by side, a line of light running down their wake over the water. Looking just 
alike, diving simultaneously, coming up nearly together and swimming so close 
together that they made the point of a wedge for one ripping wake, they sug- 
