The tree swallow's under parts are pure white, while its back and shoulders, 

 when the sun strikes them full and fair, are a shimmering green. 



We turned the prow of our little boat toward the shore and landed by 

 some great trees under which the Indians once must have roamed. There two 

 male redstarts gave us a diversion by having a pitched battle, first on a limb, 

 then in the air, and then on the limb again. We stayed in the vicinity for cer- 

 tainly half an hour, and though we did not watch them constantly, I think that 

 these little warblers, whose tempers are as fiery as their plumage, never once 

 gave over fighting. We found a red-bellied, woodpecker on one of the big trees. 

 This locality is, I think, about its northern limit, though one careful observer 

 has reported the presence of one of these woodpeckers in Lincoln Park, Chicago. 

 We heard the note of the tufted titmouse. It was the same "Peter-peter-peter" 

 that I had heard early in March in the southern Hoosier hills. 



As the shadows began to lengthen, we floated homeward with the gentle 

 current of the river. When the sun declihed the wood thrushes found voice 

 once more. Their songs attended us all the way to the farm-house. Perhaps 

 the birds knew of their listeners' appreciation, and were moved sympathetically 

 to sing until it was time for the vesper sparrow to close the day's concert. 



The Marsh Hawk {Circus Iludsonius) 

 By W. Leon Dawson 



Length : 19 inches. Range : North America, south to Panama. 



Nest : On ground ; eggs, 3 to 6. 



Humility is the leading characteristic of this "ignoble" bird of prey, whether 

 we regard its chosen paths, its spirit, or the nature of its quarry. Pre-eminentlv 

 a bird of the meadows and marshes, it usually avoids the woods entirely, and 

 is to be seen coursing over the grass and weed-tops with an easy gliding flight. 

 Since it flies at such a low elevation as neither to see or be seen over the limits 

 of an entire field, it often flies in a huge zigzag course "quartering" its territory 

 like a hunting dog. Now and then the bird pauses and hovers to make a more 

 careful examination of a suspect, or drops suddenly into the grass, seizes a mole 

 or a cricket, and retires to a convenient spot — a fence-post or a grassy knoll — 

 to devour its catch. The food of the Marsh Hawk consist almost entirely of 

 meadow mice, gophers, garter snakes, frogs, lizards, grasshoppers and the like. 

 Only in the winter is it driven to prey to any large extent upon birds, and then 

 only such northern birds as frequent weedy bottoms and swampy tangles, Tree 

 Sparrows, Juncoes, etc. 



This Hawk is the most unwary, as it is the most useful, of its race. It is 

 no achievement to assassinate one from behind the cover of a convenient haycock, 

 or even to arrest its easy flight in an oj^cn field. The tillers of the soil have done 



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