The Henpecked Shorcbird That Goes to Sea 



141 



'WtKk&- 



I followed slowly and carefully with the canoe. The uncon- 

 cern that the bird showed for all traffic rules astonished me: 

 its determination to follow any route it had selected seemed 

 to indicate that it had met few obstructions in its early life. 

 The wind had dropped, the sun was about as hot as I had 

 ever felt it in the marsh, and I had stripped down to shorts 

 and a track shirt. Ordinarily the brightness of such days ap- 

 peared to make the birds quite wary so that many of them, 

 which never objected to my coming close on windy days, 

 would fly when I was three or four canoe lengths away. But 

 this shorebird which spent most of its time swimming, and 

 which moved nervously, evidently had no fear of me or my 

 moving boat. It continued its quick jabbing pecks, which at 

 first had seemed rather aimless, but which I could now see 

 were delivered with force and precison. Its prey must have 

 been small on that day or surely it would have been forced 



