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.
[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 and young, with whom a great many other birds stopped for a little chat.
"In a few weeks we must be off—how have you enjoyed the summer?" asked the Bank Swallow of his sharp-tailed brother from the barn.
"Excellently well! Times have changed for the better; not a single cat or rat has been seen in my hayloft all the season, and the window has been always open."
"So you have changed your mind about House People?" said the Bank Swallow slyly.