50 AN INDOLENT RIVER 



in the shadow of the busy city. The Mink, hunted 

 everywhere for his handsome coat, finds a respite 

 from persecution and grows fat and saucy at his ease. 

 The slender Weasel sometimes comes out to ask the 

 business of a passing canoe. The Skunk and Wood- 

 chuck excavate their cave dwellings in the high banks. 

 The Red Fox sometimes braves the fate threatened by 

 a bad reputation, and Squirrels and Chipmunks make 

 the general quiet more subduing by contrast with 

 their industry. The wary Blue Heron often rests in 

 the shallow marshes, his white neck outlined against 

 the dense banks of green. But he is mistrustful of 

 man, and on the least threat of approach springs 

 struggling into the air and takes his steady course 

 to more remote haunts. The Bittern hides, invisibly 

 seen, in the dense shelter, and sometimes rises with 

 a fluttering rush from almost under the foot of a 

 startled intruder. Rails and Gallinules chatter noisily 

 in the marsh, and Blackbirds attend to their domestic 

 affairs among the tall rushes. The Oriole finds an 

 ideal swing on the drooping branch of an Elm, and 

 the Flicker excavates a home in the decayed trunk of a 

 Willow. The tiny Red-start moves like a live coal 

 through the dense green shades. And when night 

 closes in and the canoe moves imperceptibly with the 

 silent water, the Fireflies come out and draw threads 

 of light through the tall Rushes that bound the 

 narrowed hori^n. Frogs set up their weird chorus* 



