IN A PALACE OF REEDS. 125 
brake watching a green-heron’s nest, a 
low sweet “ ¢ur@ilec,”’ much like the wood- 
thrush’s warble or thrill, called my eyes toa 
bird not ten feet away from me. I was well 
hidden and motionless, so that I was not dis- 
covered until after I had thoroughly identified 
the hermit. It repeated the low, musical trill 
several times, and when at length I frightened 
it by some movement, it flew away uttering a 
keen squeak or chirp. 
Having digressed thus far it is pardonable 
to go a step further and declare that the blue- 
jay sings. I have heard it sing a low, tender 
wheedling song which seems never to have at- 
tracted the notice of naturalists. A. wood- 
duck had her nest in the hollow of a plane- 
tree just across the little river from the palace. 
I watched her go out andin. She made her 
wings silent, so as not to attract notice, going 
through the air with as little noise as an owl. 
Her mate, a beautifully painted fellow, lin- 
gered about the brakes in the vicinity, occa- 
sionally uttering a sly quack. How the young 
when hatched were conveyed safely to the 
ground we failed to discover. One morning 
they were in the river swimming beside their 
mother as if they had always been there, dod- 
dling their heads and arching their necks just 
like old ducks. 
There was an island a mile up the river 
whither we often went, to fish off shore for 
bass, and to sketch kildee-plover and sand- 
pipers. On one end of the island grew a 
patch of cane and rush-grass into which we 
tracked a fawn; but the shy creature hid so 
successfully that we could not find it. A wild 
turkey had its nest in the edge of this jungle 
