128 LAND OF THE LINGERING SNOW. 



in the strong light. As they came on down 

 the stream towards me they saw me ; their bright 

 eyes were fixed upon me. If I moved ever so 

 little they would be off. I felt frozen, hypno- 

 tized, by their steady stare. The female was 

 handsome enough, but the drake was equal to a 

 Hindu maharajah in his splendor. His breast 

 was chestnut, his head lustrous green and violet, 

 his throat white, his back coppery black and 

 brown with purple and green lights playing over 

 it, his glittering eye was red. All these colors, 

 gleaming in the sunlight at once, without so much 

 as a spear of grass to hide them, were dazzling. 

 The birds did not seem real. I longed to call 

 some one to see them, to enjoy them with me. 

 They slid noiselessly through their narrow chan- 

 nel to the wall, and there the bushes hid them. 

 Two or three minutes passed ; there was no sign, 

 no sound. I rose and scanned the meadow for 

 them, but they had vanished ; and during the 

 remainder of my hour they did not reappear. 

 Twice afterwards on other days I saw them, but 

 under no such favoring circumstances. 



From the Oaks I walked most of the way back 

 to Cambridge, seeing and hearing great numbers 

 of birds. Bluebirds were conspicuously com- 

 mon ; several more kingfishers flew over ; flickers 

 were so numerous that I felt sure they must be 

 migrating in force. Near Payson Park another 



