504 The Water-fowl Family 



but hardly ever seen on the wing unless alarmed. 

 Then the whole party sometimes drifted into the 

 girdle of green, and often the old ones rose and 

 circled away on high while the little ones dived 

 beneath the surface to rise again out of sight in 

 the solid mass of reeds. When the American 

 came to California he found all the ponds, sloughs, 

 and lagoons dotted with ducks in midsummer, for 

 the old Spanish settlers never troubled them. 

 And the numbers were so increased in autumn 

 by the great host that streamed out of the far 

 North and knew still less of the wicked ways of 

 man that, when the first rains of winter set the 

 hills and slopes aglow with green, a good duck- 

 pond in its setting, now tinged with russet and 

 gold, was a sight worth the seeing. Here they 

 spent the bright days of winter, some, like the 

 widgeon, basking on the carpet of green that fast 

 robed the land to the very edge of the water; 

 others, like the teal, drifting along the shores or 

 dozing in little sunny bays ; others, like the 

 canvas-back and the red-head, more in love with 

 the middle of the pond, but all forming the most 

 perfect picture of repose. In all nature I have 

 found nothing so restful to the eye as such 

 a mirror reflecting heaven's warmest blue be- 

 side the image of the snow that gleamed among 

 the dark pines on the mountain behind, with 

 the meadow-lark warbling the first notes of 



