^'"■S'js"! ^^■^)MA^•^•. .1 /f'/VAv Rohiii h'oost In Mhsoiiri. 1^ 



of about forty acres on some of the lowest ground where the last 

 remains of water are now vanishing, leaving heaps of dead and 

 dying fishes in the puddles (mostly dog, cat, and buffalo fishes). 



When unmolested the Robins are not long in settling down and 

 out of sight amongst the high and thickly matted reeds, and it is 

 not nearly dark when the last has disappeared and nothing 

 indicates the presence of so many thousand K^obins but an 

 occasional clatter, soon to give way to entire silence. If one 

 enters their domain at night, they start with a scold, one by one, 

 and not until one approaches very closely, to drop down again at 

 no great distance. 



Associating with them in the roost sleep a goodly number of 

 Rusty Blackbirds, while the Bronzed Crackles keep somewhat 

 apart. They arrive in troops with the last Robins and leave also 

 a little later in the morning. 



The Robin leaves its roost with the break of day, in about the 

 same mysterious way in which it came. For a few minutes the 

 whole air is alive with Robins, not in troops or heading in 

 certain directions, but every one seems to follow another route, 

 some moving at moderate heights through the misty air, but the 

 greater number rise rapidly, though with laborious wing, heavy 

 with dew, in order to gain the drier and purer atmosphere above, 

 where they disappear as mere specks in the first rays of the just 

 now rising sun. 



Where are they going? 'J'he sun is hardly high enough in the 

 sky to throw its soft light on the dew-drops in the marsh when 

 not a single Robin is either heard or seen. Several clouds of 

 Crackles have swept over the marsh with heavy, whistling wing 

 and have disappeared in the distance ; the marsh now seems 

 deserted. Silence reigns. The sun's rays are beginning to 

 soften the chilliness of the October air. The Leconte's Sparrow 

 creeps stealthily up to an elevated position to dry its wet dress in 

 the sunshine. Swamp and Song Sparrows leave the reeds to 

 visit the tussocks in the oozy slough. The two Marsh Wrens come 

 out of their retreat for moments to air their tiny wings. Snipes 

 and Pectoral Sandpipers are at work on the softer parts of the 

 slough. Rails sneak from under the decaying leaves of water- 

 plants and the Marsh Hawk has occupied its favorite perch in 



