46 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Great Blue Heron stayed throughout the entire season. Then 

 when the creek is under ice and the niar^lies snow covered, the 

 Crows congregate there by hundreds. 



The first warm touch of spring seems to sink deeper into the 

 marsh than elsewhere. The plants push their young leaves 

 rapidly forward, and after the first of April what changes tran- 

 spire within a week ! One can almost see the spatter-dock and 

 water arum (Peltandra) grow. Before we can realize it the 

 marsh is again green with pointed leaves, tussocks of muskrat- 

 grass and clumps of calamus, while the banks are carpeted with 

 violets and a white flower of the mustard family, and in damp 

 places the marsh marigold attracts our attention. Now thf 

 Redwings make merry and the Swamp Sparrows sing all day 

 and most of the night, while Warblers throng the thickets. 



Almost before we know it, and long ere we are ready, the 

 scene has changed. The marshes are now a wealth of wild 

 roses, to which clumps of viburnums, with a profusion of white 

 bloom form a fitting background. Now the Long-billed Marsh 

 Wrens are busy building their many nests, and Least Bitterns 

 skulk about among the cat-tails and wild rice. 



Again, what a change I We now look across a moving sea of 

 blue — the blossoms of the pickerel-weed {Pontederia) — a floral 

 disj)lay unequaled save by that of the thousands of pink and 

 white mallow blossoms as seen from our cabin doorway in 

 August. Now when on the creek we are hemmed in by walls 

 of the wild rice, and if we notice the Peltandra we will find that 

 already it is sticking its own seeds deep down in the mud. 

 Swamp Sparrows and Marsh Wrens furnish the only bird music 

 that comes from the marsh. As we listen to them we hear a 

 faint " pink, pink," and we reahze that the first Bobolinks have 

 arrived, and only a few days remain before the gunner will take 

 possession of the marshes. 



Up to now the aquatic vegetation has been advancing almost 

 steadily. The first crop of spatter-dock leaves died down 

 about the middle of July, but the second croji is now at its best. 

 With the advent of the gunners a decline begins. The gunners 

 make this more noticeable by tramping down the fields of wild 

 rice, so that we can now see the distant bank with its persimmon 



