<5ra00 is (Breen 



my field-glass into use to see them as if close at 

 hand. Their globular nests fastened to the tall 

 leaves of the cat-tail were not to be seen from where 

 I sat, but the birds appeared and re-appeared with 

 almost mathematical precision. They fluttered 

 straight up into the air, and while on the wing, 

 sang a few simple notes that have been very slight- 

 ingly spoken of. But place and circumstance have 

 much to do with bird music. Up in your garden 

 these wrens would be simply chattering; but 

 among the reeds, as I have said elsewhere, every 

 note seems a drop of water that the bird charges 

 with melody and then lets trickle back into the 

 marsh. As I watched the wrens and listened to 

 their songs, a larger bird even than the little bit- 

 tern filled the field of my glass, and so appeared 

 for an instant to be flying into my face. It was a 

 curious experience. It was a green heron, one of 

 the little company that have established a heronry 

 in a sink-hole in an upland field. I marked its 

 flight, and made sure of its going there, and then 

 marked that it was time to follow. I had reached 

 the island tangle at low tide, and now, where I 

 had walked, I must wade, and where I waded, I 

 must swim, or failing in this, must beg ferriage from 

 some of the patient fishermen near by. I say "pa- 

 tient," for the man that rowed me to the main 

 shore admitted that in five hours he had had four 

 nibbles and one bite, but no fish. He left me to 

 resume angling. What manner of man is this ? 

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