222 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



mill by tlie bridge and came to rest on tbe 

 top of the chimney ! Here was queerness. 

 We leveled our glasses upon the creature 

 and saw that it was plainly a merganser 

 (shelldrake), with its crest feathers project- 

 ing backward from the crown, and its wing 

 well marked with white. Its head, unless 

 the light deceived me, was brown. The 

 main thing, however, for the time being, was 

 none of these details, but the spectacle of the 

 bird itself, in so strange and sightly a posi- 

 tion. " It looks like the storks of Europe," 

 said my companion. Certainly it looked 

 like something other than an every-day 

 American duck, with its outstretched neck 

 and its long, slender, rakish biU showing in 

 silhouette against the sky. 



Meanwhile, it had put its head partly out 

 of sight in the top of the chimney, as if it 

 had a nest there and were feeding its young. 

 Then of a sudden it took wing, but in a 

 minute or two was back again, to our in- 

 creasing wonderment ; and again it dropped 

 the end of its bill out of sight below the level 

 of the topmost bricks. Now, however, I 

 could see the mandibles in motion, as if it 



