IN THE OOZY PLACES 165 



ness of their bodies in proportion to their bulk, 

 the youngsters, it would seem, must either be 

 under the water or right up on top of it. 



Throughout the afternoon we slowly slipped 

 along, never in a hurry, but always unraveling a 

 little of the watery scroll ; and all along the way 

 we met the folks of the prairie and marsh the 

 muskrat that eyed us stupidly, then dived ker- 

 chug almost under the bow; the two big mallards 

 standing on the mud, that when they saw us ran 

 ashore and hid in the grass ; when we landed and 

 failed to find a sign of the cunning rascals, we 

 had to conclude that they were old birds help- 

 lessly moulted, as described in some of the books ; 

 the little striped "gopher" (spermophile) that 

 watched us from the reeds, and when we had 

 passed, struck out and swam across the stream 

 what he, of all things, was doing in a marsh, 

 must ever remain a mystery; the great flock of 

 thirsty crows, and the red-wing host, with a 

 goodly number of their bobolink cousins, all 

 fresh from the oat-field, that came to drink and 

 then rest in the willows; the solitary sandpipers 

 that bobbed their heads knowingly at us from 

 the mud; and the greater yellowlegs that sur- 

 prised us by appearing so early in the season. 



