The White Pigeon 97 



within a foot of the bird, there stood one or more beer bottles 

 with labels plainly showing? Had the publisher overlooked 

 the presence of the containers and used my photographs, he 

 would have unquestionably held me responsible for the com- 

 plaints of the drys who might charge that the picture was 

 published to show that even the birds enjoyed that particular 

 brand. I would have been attacked by all the branches of 

 the liquor interests: the hard liquor people because beer 

 alone was advertised; the beer barons because a particular 

 brew was mentioned to the exclusion of all other beers. That, 

 I wanted to avoid. Consequently, though I made no attempt 

 to police the marsh in general, I did make a practice when I 

 found a bottle in certain spots favored by birds, of pressing 

 the top of the bobbing container gently with my paddle tip, 

 and holding the tip there until the cessation of gurgles and 

 grunts indicated that the bottle was full of water and ready 

 to join the others which must almost pave the bottom of the 

 bay. 



It may be that, some time in the remote future, workmen 

 excavating in the filled land where the marsh once stood, 

 will strike this stratum and make a collection that will be 

 representative of the glass containers of this period. And if 

 the savants enter into the discussion, as they undoubtedly 

 will, there will be many a learned theory propounded to ex- 

 plain why and how these containers came to be distributed 

 with such regularity over so large a place. 



