one try to harm me I can dive, and swim under water out of
reach.

Well, chick, let us go back to our home in the water.

[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff.
PIED BILLED GREBE.]

THE PIEDBILL GREBE.

Members of the family of Grebes are to be found in the temperate zones
of both hemispheres, beyond which they do not extend very far either to
the north or south. They are usually found on ponds or large sheets of
stagnant water, sometimes on deep, slow-moving streams; but always where
sedges and rushes are abundant. Probably there are no birds better
entitled to the name of water fowl than the Grebes--at least, observers
state that they know of no others that do not on some occasions appear
on dry land. It is only under the most urgent circumstances, as, for
instance, when wounded, that they approach the shore, and even then they
keep so close to the brink that on the slightest alarm they can at once
plunge into the water. Whatever they do must be done in the water; they
cannot even rise upon the wing without a preliminary rush over the
surface of the lake. From dry land they cannot begin their flight. Their
whole life is spent in swimming and diving. They even repose floating
upon the water, and when thus asleep float as buoyantly as if they were
made of cork, the legs raised to the edges of the wings, and the head
comfortably buried among the feathers between the back and shoulder.
Should a storm arise, they at once turn to face the blast, and are
usually able, with their paddle-like feet, to maintain themselves in the
same place. They dive with great facility, and make their way more
swiftly when under water than when swimming at the top. When flying the
long neck is stretched out straight forwards and the feet backwards. In
the absence of any tail, they steer their course by means of their
feet. When alarmed they instantly dive.

Their food consists of small fishes, insects, frogs, and tadpoles.
Grebes are peculiar in their manner of breeding. They live in pairs, and
are very affectionate, keeping in each other's company during their
migrations, and always returning together to the same pond. The nest is
a floating one, a mass of wet weeds, in which the eggs are not only kept
damp, but in the water. The weeds used in building the nests are
procured by diving, and put together so as to resemble a floating heap
of rubbish, and fastened to some old upright reeds. The eggs are from
three