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 J'an.,l.916 CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS OF' THP-, DAKOTA PRAIRIES 17 AEchmophorus is doubtless the king of the family, I had only maddening glimpses of him, once catching the gleam of a long white neck across a lake as its owner disappeared below. Barring AEchmophorus, holboli is head and shoulders above all the others in size and distinction. Its height above the water, its striking white throat-latch, and long red neck glowing in the sun make it a marked bird. What a contrast to the plain little Pied-billed we had been seeing in the rules leading around its tiny chicks! When holboelli puts down its head in preen- ing itself the white chin does not show, and it may have to be distinguished from some of the marsh dwellers by its reddish body; but when the long red- dish neck is raised to its full height, the bill becomes a short horizontal line surmounting a high vertical one--I---and even at a distance the white throat- latch makes a striking field character. The Grebes we heard calling from across the lake lived in the rules of a marsh opening into the lake. When I went to the marsh young and old all seemed to be talking at once, but the loud grating ker'r'r and a liquid hen turkey note drowned the rest. In my anxiety to see better I made the fatal mistake of rising above my tule screen for a moment, and silence fell. The two parents immediately swam out into the lake, one with such a decided hUmp on its back that it must have been carrying off its young, as an alarmed parent had been seen doing a few days previously nearer at hand. After a long silence I caught one of the old Grebes with head turned looking my way, after which there was more silence; and when the loud talking was finally resumed it was behind a screen all too far out on the lake. Though so 'interesting and distinguished, the lordly holboelli did not lessen my affection for the quiet little Eared Grebes with whom I had been on Stump Lake during the summer. Slender, gracefully formed little creatures, with the pointed crest and light ear patch, they would swim along near shore quietly looking at me, or make pictures of themselves out in the white luminosity of reflected cloud on the still lake, the pointed head and graceful neck charmingly. mirrored below. Though .so quiet and gentle, the pretty californicus is nervous, and, if you do not keep as quiet as it does, after turn- ing alertly from side to side scrutinizing you, will curve forward on its bill and dive below, the silvery white of its belly showing below the reddish brown of its sides as it disappears. The Eared has the Grebe habit of lying on its side on the water so that its white breast, whose soft silky feathers have been made all too familiar by milliners, gleams far across the water. Sometimes the bird turns on its side just long enough to flash across the water and then is gone below. When swimming around with the white hidden, its body glows reddish brown in the sun. On the rare occasions when one sits on the water with its long neck down, it is amusingly transformed into a snug little Duck. While watching the Eared Grebes on Stump Lak I saw them going about either singly or in pairs until the middle of June, when I discovered a family of half-grown young swimming around some distance from shore. Seeing me, the old mother gave a harsh imperative ka-keep, ka-keep, at which the scattered brood started to swim in toward her making small wakes in the 'still water. As they were coming she gave a loud musical call, hoy-ee-up', hoy-ee-up', also heard on Sweetwater Lake, carrying far over the water. When the Eased Grebes of Stump Lake had become familiar friends, two Horned Grebes appeared along shore and were seen there for three or four