246 BEACH GRASS 



ways passing back and forth to their nests, and, 

 taking advantage of the up-currents produced by 

 the strong sea-breeze striking the cliffs, were float- 

 ing upwards like white feathers. Occasionally 

 a black feather was to be seen, as ravens 

 visited the same cliffs intent on robbing the gulls' 

 nests of eggs or young. One raven that I 

 watched floated upwards the seven hundred feet 

 with scarcely a wing stroke, born up by the gale. 



While it is a common thing to see a pair of 

 hawks of the same species mounting together in 

 circles into the blue, it is not often that hawks 

 of different species play together thus. On a 

 beautiful May day I watched a large duck 

 hawk and a marsh hawk apparently playing to- 

 gether, they circled about high up, the upper one 

 frequently falling rapidly as if to strike the 

 lower, who would then turn over to grapple, al- 

 though, as far as I could see, they never actually 

 touched each other. This was repeated again 

 and again, sometimes one and sometimes the other 

 the aggressor. 



When that bird of Jove and of Washington, 

 the bald eagle, soars into the vault of heaven — 



