A water sprite, the Louisiana water thrusli. — This is a bird of ravines and cusc^uli's. Kver tilt- 

 ing its body as though it had difficulty in balancing on its slender legs, it runs lightly over the wet 

 stones. This photograph shows it resting for a moment in midstream, its bill full of Vjlack fly larvae 

 picked from the rocks in the swift current. Its young are near in a nest on a moss-covered ledge 

 overhung with roots and ferns 



A rocky cradle. — Tlie killdeer builds no nest but merely scratches a lioUow in the ground. The 

 young killdeers do not need a soft nest because they are able to run about as soon as they hatch from 

 the eggs. The killdeer formerly was shot as a game bird but it is now grouped with other migratory, 

 insectivorous birds and given the protection that it deserves. Killdeers frequent fields, shores, and 

 ploughed ground, sometimes far from water, and feed upon locusts, cutworms, and other insect pests 



Thin as a rail. — The proverbial rail was more likely a fence tlian a bird, but tliiuness is quite 

 as characteristic of these strange birds of the marshes. The body is compressed like that of a flea, to 

 enable it to slip through the dense vegetation. Here a Virginia rail is sneaking to its nest 



108 



