Chapter IV 



Water Fowl 



THE coast of Southern California is, in the main, 

 a long stretch of sand dunes changing every 

 hour and moment in the wind that heaps them 

 up into strange and fascinating shapes. In many in- 

 stances they form breakwaters, damming up the waters 

 that flow down the canons' stream-beds from the interior. 

 Thus all the country to the south of the Palos Verde, 

 near San Pedro, and extending to Long Beach, is a 

 shallow back bay, a series of lagunas or canals, often 

 running back into the country to form some little pond 

 or lake. 



At Alamitos, where the San Gabriel River reaches the 

 sea, and at Balsa Chica, one of the finest preserves and 

 clubs in the country, and other places along shore to 

 San Diego we shall find these lagunas, or sea swamps, 

 the home of the duck, goose, and swan. The season 

 begins in November, and if there has been an early rain 

 the country is green and beautiful. The long summer 

 is a vanishing memory ; the air is clear, and the distant 



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