The Marsh Is a Hotel 27 



as regarded new arrivals, but hatching boosted the popula- 

 tion considerably. I continually heard the thin notes of young 

 birds— blackbirds, tule wrens, grebes, killdeers, flycatchers, 

 and warblers. Insistent were their calls for food, and inde- 

 fatigable were the efforts of the parent birds to fill the gaping 

 mouths. 



This marsh concentration on domesticity was temporary. 

 August had only begun when the canoehouse manager called 

 and said that the first returning migrants, the yellow-legs, had 

 arrived. He had heard their mellow voices. From then on, 

 previous experience told me that I could expect many guests. 

 I had long since realized that the resident birds were not 

 responsible for the activity of this wildlife hotel: they 

 amounted perhaps to fifteen per cent of the total registered 

 species, and, of course, to only a tiny fraction of one per cent 

 of the total number of visitors. If I continued my comparison 

 with a city hotel, I could say that the marsh had an extremely 

 satisfactory clientele which, instead of filling it for a two- 

 or three-month nesting season, spread the patronage over the 

 entire year in a regular spaced coming-and-going which 

 would have pleased any hotel man. From the standpoint of 

 an observer it simply meant that he would find it interesting 

 at any season of the year. I thought it particularly attractive 

 in late August and September. Then green- winged teal, 

 pintails fast and trim, wood ducks with their unsurpassed 

 greens, reds, and grays, and a few dingy coots replaced the 

 departing summer residents with a different but equally 

 active guest list. As the weeks went by the increasing ac- 

 celeration of departures was offset by the newcomers, and 

 soon the marsh had lost all of its summer residents except a 

 few mallards, bitterns, rails, and song sparrows which re- 

 mained to winter. 



The date of arrival of the fall migrants varied some from 

 year to year but the order of arrival of the different species 

 remained surprisingly constant. I discovered that the green- 



