IN THE OOZY PLACES 169 



Not so, however, with a young red-tailed 

 hawk, nearby, that evidently had been raised in 

 the place and resented our intrusion. From a 

 dead elm-tip a hundred yards distant, he 

 screamed shrilly every few moments. One of his 

 parents circled overhead and added his or her 

 voice to the unseemly din. We were hardly pre- 

 pared for the youngster, though, when he winged 

 over and with much flapping steadied himself in 

 the tree right over our heads. He stayed only a 

 few moments before striking off again followed 

 by the anxious parent, and we were glad to be 

 rid of their outrageous clamor. From the whit- 

 ish underparts of both old and young, I judged 

 them to be Krider's variety of the red-tail; but 

 whatever their kind, they seemed an unholy 

 blight upon the peacefulness of the little place. 



Just at dusk the blackbirds flocked in by 

 scores till hundreds of them were hidden in the 

 willows. Then the raucous voices of the night 

 herons came out of the darkness; the squealing 

 of the family of long-eared owls rose intermit- 

 tently as the scattered young called for food; a 

 Bartram's sandpiper, striking off southward, 

 sent down his liquid ripple ; the small birds of the 

 thicket were hushed ; somewhere out on the prai- 



