ravens] AN ADVENTURE 63 



indeed, were the truth known, I expect I have played " hooky" a 

 number of times that I might go fishing for Sunfish in the old 

 "Mill Pond" at Stamford, Connecticut. The pond is still there, 

 and I dare say a few Sunfish are yet to be found in it. 



I give a good illustration of one of these beauties in Figure 1 1 of 

 this chapter, made from life. It was taken in a special aquarium 

 which I had had constructed for the very purpose of getting photo- 

 graphs of fishes from life. Several years ago, I took a large number 

 of such photographs at the Aquaria of the United States Bureau 

 of Fisheries at Washington, and among them were some very 

 interesting ones of Sunfish. One of these is here reproduced in 

 Figure 12, which is quite satisfactory when one comes to realize 

 that there are nearly twenty fishes in it — all in motion. At another 

 time I will show you some more of my photographs of living fishes 

 in aquaria. 



An Adventure 



Louise Ravens 



It was a Saturday in mid-October — perhaps the 18th or there- 

 abouts. The day was mild, sunny at times, and called insistently 

 to the out-door people to be off for the woods. For some days I 

 had been noticing groups of Wilson thrushes, large companies of 

 kinglets, and an occasional towhee, in the trees and among the 

 shrubbery of the gardens, showing that the fall migration was at 

 its height and that our transients had arrived from the north. 



With the hope of seeing some rarer bird and, perhaps scenting 

 an adventure, I took with me my opera glasses and turned my face 

 northward toward some open spaces which had long invited me 

 to come and make their more intimate acquaintance. 



As I walked along the country road, I was greeted on every 

 hand by the latest of late wild flowers — a few purple asters, numer- 

 ous white and blue ones and, here and there a still-bright spray 

 of golden rod. The trees were at their autumn best, the golden elm 

 and the wine-red oak adding color to the landscape But what 

 interested me most was the occasional whirr of a swift -winged bird, 

 and I soon found a spot on the slope of a little gully which seemed 

 sheltered and cosy and seated myself on the ground to await 

 developments. 



