Sept., 1918 A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 173 though I had failed to see them, there were some in the other lake, the two flocks apparently calling to each other. After these two mornings with the grebes, I went to Stump Lake, but while there the thought of the rare opportunity ! was losing worried me until I actually dreamed of the beautiful grebes. Nevertheless, so much had been told me of the great flocks of migrating shore birds to be seen on Devil's Lake that I felt I must go there before returning to the Sweetwaters. An ideal
place was found from which to watch them--a stone farmhouse on the bluff
above Creel Bay, in the deep, quiet northwestern part of the lake. At the foot of the bluff was a broad beach where myriads of shorebirds had congregated in previous years, but one of the unusual seasons that so often balk the plans of the traveler was.experienced here--hardly so much as a sandpiper was seen during my stay. But here again, my compensations were rich. On the lake in plain sight from the house I found a flock of the white-throated grebes, and during my ?isit they increased in numbers from twenty to fifty-two! For a week I watched them--not from a rule marsh in water up to my knees--but with my glass from an easy chair on a broad piazza whose wide, woodbine draped arches framed the picture of white clouds and blue lake--spirit lake, as its old Indian name---Mnewahkon is interpreted; a wide lake of blue and white waters, of shifting, subtle beauty under varying wind, sky, and cloud, affording appropri- ate setting for its white gulls and silvery-throated Swan Grebes. Where had the beautiful grebes gathered from ? As their numbers swelled, I liked to think that perhaps some of my own Sweetwater colony had come to me here. The grebes did most of their diving in a belt of weed about a third of the way out across the lake, at night generally coming closer in shore; in the morn- ing, as signs of life appeared at the farmhouse, working gradually out again. One night they were heard calling at one o'clock. While I did not keep defi.- nite records of their feeding hours, they must have. had a very early breakfast, for one day between six and seven I found them already resting, and another day, at about half past nine they were diving as for a second meal. Still an- other day I noted that after nine or ten o'clock there was not much going on, thirty or forty of the birds resting within a radius of a few rods. ht one gathering of forty-five, all apparently grebes, nearly all presented the appearance of gray ovals with white fronts, 'their long necks laid on their backs. In certain lights the gray ovals looked black, making black spots on the water. As the necks came up, it was interesting to see the dark ovals trans- forened by the white erect line. When part of a flock was active, an animated picture was presented, alert looking profiles--long sharp bills at right angles to the long neck--pointing some to the right and some to the left, while seat- Iered among those sitting on the water were active divers coming up or going below. "What's that white bird?" was asked, as a turn hid all the black, leaving a beautiful snowy figure; but at another kaleidoscopic turn, perhaps a black bird would have taken its place; while at a certain angle a subtler ef- fect was given, the white grebe almost fading into the gray water. Very long the divers looked when stretched prone on the surface, stretching out a foot and shaking it behind like a flag waved at the end of a boat. How expertly Aechmophorus dived ! Putting its long sharp bill down gently before it, it would part the water and vanish. Sometimes--most astonishing sight--when sitting on the water one would begin to sink below. When nearly
