The Birds and Poets 81 



marsh, or meadow or timber, was inundated, and 

 every piece of low ground in fields or woods was 

 transformed into a pond. It was a terrible tragedy 

 for thousands of birds whose homes were wiped 

 out by the floods. The meadows and fields were 

 filled with the nests of various sparrows, of bobo- 

 links, meadowlarks, dickcissels, etc., and the low 

 woodland shrubs held many nests of catbirds, 

 thrushes and other birds. The nests of hundreds 

 of shore and marsh birds such as sandpipers, bit- 

 terns, bank swallows, kingfishers, rails, etc., must 

 have been swept away. Of course swollen streams 

 are common in the early spring, and at that season 

 little damage is done to the birds because few, if 

 any, are then nesting, but when such a flood comes 

 early in June, at the time when the nesting season 

 is at its height, the ruin which follows in its wake 

 is appalling. 



Imagine the little complement of eggs of the 

 spotted sandpiper laid in the grass along the 

 water's edge, and the water rising until it carries 

 them off down stream; or the anxiety and conster- 

 nation which must come to the bank swallow or 

 kingfisher who watches the tide rising steadily but 

 irresistibly to the opening in the river bank which 

 leads to her nest of eggs or young, while she sits 

 by powerless to prevent it; or what must be the 

 feelings of the usually jocund and hilarious bobo- 

 link who has joyously built his snug little nest close 

 among the thick grass or clover, to find the meadow 

 transformed into a pond, in which he cannot even 



