The Music of the Marsh 



not an extremely handsome bird. An old male has 

 a few beautiful iridescent feathers around the back 

 of the neck and across the shoulders, the throat is 

 narrowly striped with cream; but the general color 

 is a dark, dull brown. He has smooth, scaled legs 

 and feet of greenish yellow, full bright eyes, and 

 quite a lively coloring on his elegantly shaped bill. 

 He is a romping, mischievous, free, wild bird, and 

 no marsh choir would be complete without his clear, 

 ringing notes. 



If it be fair to laugh at anything that is young 

 and helpless, then a baby sheitpoke is almost, if 

 not quite, the most laughable specimen in birdland. 

 A long, slender, yellow-tinted beak; long, slender 

 neck; long, slender legs; long, slender body; big, 

 popping eyes; an insatiable appetite, and vocal 

 powers to proclaim it loudly around the marsh. 



Of the same location as the yellow lily are the 

 water hyacinths. Their leaves lift above the sur- 

 face, are near one-fourth the size of the yellow lily, Water 

 and lance-shaped. They are a crisp dark-green Hy acinths 

 and stiffly upstanding. The stems of the leaf and 

 bloom are very similar to the yellow lily, except 

 that the blooms rise on an average of six or eight 

 inches higher and are a long head set with tiny 

 bracts, in each of which blooms an exquisite little 

 blue flower. Blooming begins at the base and 

 slowly climbs to the tip, the lower flowers fading 

 before the top are all open. The head is of pure 

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