APRIL DAYS 



ing their plaintive call, you can hardly 

 imagine the clumsy body between that 

 grim head and rudder-like tail capable 

 of such graceful motion. 



The painted wood drake swims above 

 the submerged tree roots ; a pair of dusky 

 ducks splash to flight, with a raucous 

 clamor, out of a sedgy cove at your ap- 

 proach; the thronging blackbirds shower 

 liquid melody and hail of discord from 

 the purple - budded maples above you. 

 All around, from the drift of floating and 

 stranded water weeds, arises the dry, 

 crackling croak of frogs, and from sunny 

 pools the vibrant trill of toads. 



From afar come the watery boom of a 

 bittern, the song of a trapper and the 

 hollow clang of his setting pole dropping 

 athwart the gunwales of his craft, the 

 distant roar of a gun and the echoes 

 rebounding from shore to shore. 



The grateful odor of the warming 

 earth comes to your nostrils ; to your 

 ears, from every side, the sounds of 

 spring ; and yet you listen for fuller con- 

 firmation of its presence in the long-drawn 

 wail of the plover and the rollicking 

 melody of the bobolink. 

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