Citicus again watched the spot, but Rusticus watched the opposite side of 

 the bay. A few moments later he exclaimed, "There he is again, over near the 

 willows !" "Yes," assented C, "just where I saw him first. So that is the hell- 

 diver ! I saw the black ring around the bill as plain as day when he turned to 

 look at us. But say — he can dive some, can't he?" "Indeed he can, but Quimbo 

 King, a friend of mine, and the best hunter in these parts, says the water witch, 

 as he calls him, instead of swimming all the way under water, really dives for a 

 distance, then comes near enough to the surface to stick the bill out now and 

 then for a breath and swims the rest of the way in this manner. Lots of fellows 

 say that he can dive so quick as to dodge a bullet, but I notice that Quimbo gets 

 them when he tries for them. Poor marksmen have helped the grebe to get his 

 reputation — and his names, hell-diver, waterwitch, dabchick and dipper. But, 

 say, ril stump you to go in and find the nest ! I'll bet it is over near those wil- 

 lows." 



They rolled their pantaloons almost to their hips and waded around to the 

 willows. "Nothing here," remarked Citicus, as he waded about a small mass of 

 water-soaked weeds floating on the surface, but caught upon some rushes. 



"I'll bet the nest is right here under our very eyes," said R., as he began to 

 remove the top layer of the wet weeds. 



Presently a dirty white egg was seen, then another, and finally eight. They 

 replaced the weeds and waded ashore, quite filled with admiration of the grebe's 

 skill in concealing her nest. 



The Pied-billed Grebe, commonly called Hell-diver, Diedapper, Dabchick, 

 Waterwitch, is often mistaken for the horned grebe. 



Grebes are unexcelled as divers as they swim and dive like a fish, and reach 

 a depth of five or six fathoms. They are the most acquatic of all North American 

 birds found in the interior, but are helpless on land, unable to walk or rise on the 

 wing. Like other grebes, they rest on the tarsus while on land, as shown in 

 plate. The toes are not connected by a web, as in the ducks, but each toe is 

 equipped with separate lobes, enabling the birds to propel themselves through 

 the water, either on or beneath the surface, with great rapidity. They have no 

 tail feathers. 



The floating nest of decaying vegetation is anchored to the reeds or rushes 

 in from one to five feet of water. The birds obtain the material for these floating 

 nests from the bottom of the lakes and marshes where the nest is situated. It is 

 estimated that the birds make two hundred trips below the surface to obtain the 

 required amount of nesting material. The pied-billed arrives in the Great Lakes 

 region in April, and may remain to breed around the lagoons and lakesides of 

 Illinois and Indiana. A few pairs nest within the city limits of Chicago. 



595 



