Wild Fowl and Men 



22 



f&&J*s*+ I VISITED GAD WALL COVE THREE 



weeks after my pigskin-dowitcher experience. The little bay 

 had lost its tidiness, for the cattails and rushes had yielded 

 to the fall winds and rains and had begun to slip into irreg- 

 .ular clumps. But if the primness was gone, the pleasing color 

 change compensated for it. Many of the loosestrife leaves 

 had assumed shades of brown and red which suggested the 

 huckleberry foliage of the high country. Perhaps half the 

 cattails were a dark tan. The massed vegetation had become 

 a heather mixture— pleasing browns, reds, and greens, softly 

 blended. 



The gadwalls were visiting the marsh on their fall migra- 

 tion. Five of them watched my approach, all riding high: 

 the males, slim-gray and black-rumped; the females, brown 

 and inconspicuous. Almost before I raised my binoculars the 

 birds left the water, forcing their whole strength into the 

 action of lifting. They quartered as they rose and then, with 

 full speed acquired, they straightened out and moved down- 

 wind toward the south end of the marsh. There was no hesi- 

 tation, none of the uncertain flight of the grebes, the bitterns, 

 and the coots; instead, they displayed immediate reaction 

 and made a speedy and decisive exit. 



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