254 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



I have seen also a single marsh hawk. 

 That was on the 9th, and the circumstances 

 of the case were ludicrous. I had stopped 

 to look down from a wooded hilltop into a 

 swampy pool, where ducks sometimes alight, 

 when I saw a white object moving rapidly 

 along the farther side of the swamp, now 

 visible, now hidden behind a veil of trees 

 and shrubbery. A road runs along that 

 border of the swamp, and I took this mov- 

 ing white object for a bundle which a boy 

 was carrying upon a bicycle (making pretty 

 quick time), till suddenly I perceived that 

 it was only a marsh hawk's rump ! A red- 

 wing had given chase to the hawk mostly 

 for sport, I imagine, or just to keep his hand 

 in ; for I do not suppose he could have had 

 any real grudge to settle. Probably this is 

 the first case on record in which a hawk was 

 ever mistaken for a wheelman. 



Two evenings ago I made a solitary ex- 

 cursion to an extensive swamp and meadow, 

 hoping to witness, or at least to hear, the 

 aerial performance of the snipe. The air 

 was full of a Scotch mist, and the sky cloudy. 

 If the birds were there, and in a performing 



