jet-black feathers.

A Citizen of North America, chiefly its eastern portions, who travels
far north in spring and far south in fall. He nests in large colonies on
the sand or shingle of beaches, and cries very sadly when House People
come to steal the eggs or kill the young ones. He belongs to the guild
of Sea Sweepers, and eats little fishes.

The Loon or Great Northern Diver

Length two and a half to three feet, with a long neck like a Goose's,
and a stout straight black bill, very sharp-pointed.

Plumage glossy black above, with a necklace of white streaks and many
square white spots on the back; under parts white from the root of the
neck backwards, but the sides of the breast streaky.

Young ones are speckled gray and white, without any glossy black, and
the bill is not black.

A Citizen of North America, who nests in the far North and migrates into
the United States for the winter.

A famous Sea Sweeper, who can catch fish by chasing them under water. He
can dive like a flash and fly more than a hundred yards under water
before coming up to breathe, but is very awkward and top-heavy on land
because his legs are so far back that he has to stand up on end. His
nest is on the ground and his flesh is not fit to eat, being too rank
and fishy. You can hear his mournful cry a mile off.

The Pied-billed Grebe, Dabchick, or Water Witch

Length thirteen inches.

Upper parts brownish-black. Breast and belly white, very smooth like
satin. A black mark on the throat, and a black band on the bill, which
is shaped like a Hen's. Feathers on top of the head bristly.

Feet very strange: they stick out far behind, because Grebes have no
tail to be seen, and the toes are different from those of any other bird
you have in your tables, being scalloped with flaps of skin instead of
webbed like those of most Swimming Birds.

A Citizen of North America, whose nest is a wet bed of broken-down
reeds, sometimes floating on the water of the marsh. He can dive and
swim under water as well as a Loon. If you could catch one alive, he
would make his flapper-like feet go so fast you could not see anything
of them but a hazy film, as the Hummingbird does his wings when he
poises in front of a flower.

[Illustration: Pied-Billed Grebe.]

CHAPTER XXXII

CHORUS BY THE BIRDS

Swallows were perching on the same telegraph wires where they had met in
May. Now it was September. There were Swallows of all kinds, both old
a