Life on a Wisconsin Farm 



fish, or diving loon or muskrat, a continuous 

 struggle was kept up for several minutes ere 

 the outspreading, interfering ring-waves began 

 to die away. Swimming hastily to the spot to 

 try to discover what had happened, I found one 

 of my woodpeckers floating motionless with 

 outspread wings. All was over. Had I been a 

 minute or two earlier, I might have saved him. 

 He had glanced on the water I suppose in pur- 

 suit of a moth, was unable to rise from it, and 

 died struggling, as I nearly did at this same spot. 

 Like me he seemed to have lost his mind in 

 blind confusion and fear. The water was warm, 

 and had he kept still with his head a little above 

 the surface, he would sooner or later have been 

 wafted ashore. The best aimed flights of birds 

 and man "gang aft agley," but this was the 

 first case I had witnessed of a bird losing its 

 life by drowning. 



Doubtless accidents to animals are far more 



common than is generally known. I have seen 



quails killed by flying against our house when 



suddenly startled. Some birds get entangled 



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