266 CITIZEN BIRD 



As soon as they drove out of the wood, the smell of 

 the salt marsh came to them, and they saw that the 

 road led between low meadows, with wooded knolls 

 here and there. By and by the trees grew thinner 

 and the grass coarser. 



" Oh, I see the water ! " cried Dodo, " and the little 

 house where we are going ! Oh, look at the black 

 birds flying over those bushes ! Are those Cowbirds 

 too ? And there are more black birds, very big ones 

 too, going over to the water, and more yet coming out 

 of those stumpy little pines, and there are some yellow 

 pigeons down in the grass ! Do stop quick, Olive ! 

 I think there is going to be a bird clambake or a picnic 

 down here ! " And Dodo nearly fell out of the surrey 

 in her excitement. 



" Not exactly a picnic," said the Doctor, " but what 

 I have brought you purposely to see. The birds fly- 

 ing over the alders are Red- winged Blackbirds ; those 

 coming from the pines are Purple (irackles ; the big 

 black ones flying overhead are Crows ; and the yellow- 

 breasted fellows walking in the grass are ^leadowlarks. 

 We must first make the horses comfortable, and then 

 we can spend the day Avith the birds among these 

 marshes and meadoAvs." 



When they reached the beach the wagon track led 

 through a hedge of barberry bushes to a shed covered 

 with pine boughs at the back of the fisherman's house. 



The fisherman himself came out to help them with 

 the horses. He was a Finlander, Olaf Neilsen, who 

 kept boats in summer, fished, and tended two buoy 

 lights at the river entrance for a living. His hut stood 

 on a point, with the sandy beach of the bay in front of 



