The Birds of a Marsh 



BY VERDI BURTCH 



SEPARATED from the foot of Keuka Lake, N. Y., by a strip of 

 land about three hundred feet wide, and bordering on its outlet, is 

 a marsh of about fifty acres in area. At some time in the remote 

 past this marsh was a forest, as is attested by the numerous stumps that 

 remain to this day, some of which are upwards of three feet in diameter. 



Ten or twelve years ago the water in the marsh was three or four 

 feet deep, but, owing to a period of extended drought, it has been steadily 

 receding into the outlet, carrying with it the soft mud, water-soaked 

 sticks and various sorts of debris. This obstructed navigation to such an 

 extent that the state built a great fence, or breakwater, between the 

 outlet and the marsh, making of the latter a shallow, mud-bottomed 

 pond, the shores covered with cattails, coarse grass and weeds, a patch of 

 alders and willows in one corner, a fringe of trees on one side, and the 

 state fence, beside which are cattails and rank grass, on the outlet side. 



As the water recedes, exposing large areas of soft mud, which con- 

 tains various minute moUusks, worms and the larvs of insects, the swamp 

 becomes the resort of various species of birds, especially the shore birds. 

 These stop on their way south, bringing with them their families, which 

 were reared in the far north, in some cases way within the arctic circle. 



July 28, 1899, at 6.30 P. M., 1 sat on a stump at the edge of the 

 muddy shore commanding a view of the whole marsh. Four Great Blue 

 Herons were stalking about among the stumps. Leveling my glass at one 

 of them, I saw it move its head slowly forward and downward ; then sud- 

 denly it shot down into the water and came back with a frog in its bill. 

 With a gulp the frog disappeared, and the Heron resumed his slow walk. 

 The little Green Herons were everywhere, some wading in the shallow 

 water or standing on stumps and others flying about. Belted Kingfishers 

 were perched on the stumps, from which they would fly up and poise in 

 the air with rapidly beating wings, then dart to and into the water, fre- 

 quently coming out with a small fish, which they would take to a stump 

 to devour. Killdeers were running about all over the muddy shore. 

 Chattering in the cattails were numbers of Red -winged Blackbirds and 

 many Bobolinks, which had changed their bright plumage of spring to a 

 dull huffy olive streaked with black and their song to a single note, pink. 

 A few Bronzed Grackles were walking about in the mud. Cedar Wax- 

 wings were perched about on the stumps, from which they arose fre- 

 quently, in true Flycatcher style, to snap up a passing insect. Song Spar- 

 rows were running hither and thither among the tufts of grass at the 

 edge of the mud and occasionally mounting a stump to sing a short song. 



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