A Bay on the Bay Shore, 



line of San Francisco is visible through 

 the mist, and we see a ferry crossing 

 from the Oakland side. What a host 

 of birds haunt the shores of this great 

 bay, each with habits and life of its 

 own, yet how little do the multitudes 

 of men who cross and recross the water 

 know or care about them ! But these 

 birds of the bay shore are well worth 

 knowing, so full of strange ways they 

 are, so different from the happy crea- 

 tures of field and grove. Many of 

 them are relics of earlier and cruder 

 forms of life, telling of nature's slow 

 and painful march of progress. 



See that grebe with its bill fashioned 

 into a long, sharp, fish spear, its curious, 

 lobed feet, its slender neck and small 

 head, its oily, white breast and furtive 

 manners. I cannot imagine any one 

 growing fond of such a creature as this. 

 Handle it and it smells of fish. Then 

 turn from the water to the low growth 

 of buckeyes on yonder point. A song- 

 sparrow is singing in the thicket. 

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