FIRST WEEK] November 289 



hardly believing our eyes, until at last the gorgeous creature 

 takes to wing, and goes humming down the stream, a bit 

 of colour tropical in its extravagance and we know that 

 we have seen a male wood, or summer, duck in the full 

 grandeur of his white, purple, chestnut, black, blue, and 

 brown. Many other ducks have departed, but this one still 

 swims among the floating leaves on secluded waterways. 



Now is the time when the woodcock rises from his 

 swampy summer home and zigzags his way to a land 

 where earthworms are still active. Sometimes in our walks 

 we may find the fresh body of one of these birds, and an 

 upward glance at the roadside will show the cause the 

 cruel telegraph wires against which the flight of the bird 

 has carried it with fatal velocity. 



One of the greatest pleasures which November has to 

 give us is the joy of watching for the long lines of wild 

 geese from the Canada lakes. Who can help being thrilled 

 at the sight of these strong-winged birds, as the V-shaped 

 flock throbs into view high in air, beating over land and 

 water, forest and city, as surely and steadily as the passing 

 of the day behind them. One of the finest of November 

 sounds is the "Honk! honk!" which comes to our ears 

 from such a company of geese, musical tones " like a 

 clanking chain drawn through the heavy air." 



At the stroke of midnight I have been halted in my 

 hurried walk by these notes. They are a bit of the wild 

 north which may even enter within a city, and three years 

 ago I trapped a fine gander and a half a dozen of his flock 

 in the New York Zoological Park, where they have lived 

 ever since and reared their golden-hued goslings, which 



