58 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



celebrated by any billing and cooing. They were plain- 

 ly " old married folks " before tliey came. 



Of course, in the lives of young birds, there comes a 

 time when the mingled joys and sorrows of courtship 

 must be undergone, and curious scenes are yearly to be 

 witnessed. These frantic eiiorts to secure the smiles of 

 some fair one have been elaborately detailed by many 

 ornithologists, and it has been inferred that the same 

 ordeal must yearly be repeated ; but in very many more 

 instances than has been supposed, I believe the very op- 

 posite of this to be true. 



Having brought my boat again to the main creek, I 

 did not find departure from the " Eest " as easy as ex- 

 pected. By brute force, of course, I could have torn 

 myself away; but there proved to be too much yet to 

 see to warrant my obstinate withdrawal, for now that I 

 was in a more favorable position to do so, I made a crit- 

 ical examination of the banks of the creek, wholly with 

 reference to details. I knew it as a whole : what of the 

 component parts ? Now, for the first, I noticed numbers 

 of those beautiful crimson lilies, which are worthy of a 

 better name than " Turk's-cap." 



Towering above the rank underbrush, determined to 

 catch the kisses of every struggling sunbeam, were the 

 stout and stately stems of this queen of flowers, six, sev- 

 en, and one eleven feet in height, each with many fully 

 expanded red, yellow, and black blossoms. When I first 

 saw them, they were reflected in the still, dark water be- 

 neath, till a sportive zephyr broke the glass and scattered 

 innumerable gems that mocked the queen-lily's dignity. 



