SOME CANADIAN BIRDS 



CHAPTER XXI. 



The Whip-poor Will. Canadian Singing Birds. The 

 Phoebe Bird. American Robin. Blue Jay. Red-winged 

 Blackbird, Titmice. Woodpeckers. Humming Birds. 

 Purple Grackle. Baltimore Oriole. Belted Kingfisher. 



From early morning all through the hot, blue 

 day, the little steamer wends its way through the 

 Lakes of Muskoka. At times, the vast expanse 

 of water seems to be a veritable sea with a distant, 

 dimly defined coast-Hne; now the land draws 

 closer, forest trees wave overhead, and the boat 

 winds through the narrow labyrinths of innumer- 

 able islands. 



Sometimes singly, sometimes in little groups, 

 the scanty passengers are landed at unexpected 

 piers which consist of a few planks, creeping into 

 the water from the dense greenery, to be instantly 

 swallowed up by the illimitable forest, and the 

 wanderer whose destination is the head of Lake 

 Joseph finds himself alone on deck. 



Night falls gently and imperceptibly, yet as it 

 would seem almost suddenly. A few moments 

 ago the sky was blue, and the wavelets were 

 dancing in the sunlight ; now a soft brooding 

 darkness steals over the scene, leaving the white 

 wake of the steamer alone clearly visible against 

 the formless shadows of the woods. 



At the moment of the turn from day into 

 night, a sound strange to English ears rings from 

 the trees — " Whip-poor-will — Whip-poor-will." 



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