Pigskins and Dowitchers 243 



chose up and kicked a ball about the commons. The trend is 

 more toward making it a great city spectacle rather than a 

 friendly competitive sport. 



But I had only to focus my eyes on the immediate fore- 

 ground to forget the confusion and excitement and imagine 

 myself in some country marsh. The black water and the cat- 

 tails which lined the shore were exactly as I would have seen 

 them far from town, and the smell was like that of the coun- 

 try, varying with the rising or dropping of the breeze and as 

 distinctive as the smell of sagebrush after a shower. The little 

 waves that struck the boat seemed to push back the feeling 

 that I was in the city, and the many minnows which moved 

 through the floating pond weed recalled quiet reaches in 

 some isolated lake. A dragonfly hovered about, then dropped 

 down and landed on my knee where it rested motionless 

 until, with a swift maneuver, it shot up a distance of two 

 feet, captured a flying mosquito, and as rapidly returned to 

 my knee. This happened twice and each time I thought that 

 I heard a click as it attacked, but I may have been mistaken. 

 I observed the insect closely while it remained motionless, 

 blue-green and with black bands on back and with dark 

 knobby head. Then it flew away. 



For the rest of the day I divided my attention between 

 wildlife and sports. The stadium gates opened and the tun- 

 nel entrances spewed their contents so that, in almost no 

 time, the nonreserved seats were filled. Then the tunnels of 

 the reserved sections began to discharge a slow stream of 

 spectators who had no need to hurry but came early to see 

 the preliminaries. I heard the shrill cry of a crow just as a 

 Cooper hawk dropped into a cottonwood where the bird was 

 sitting, almost at the edge of the stadium field. The crow 

 showed its anger by calling and by hopping from branch to 

 branch above and to the side of the intruder. The hawk sat 

 motionless as if too proud to pay attention to the indignant 

 protests. When the crow finally left, it first hopped to the top 



