96 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
in the dance, till, at the slightest alarm, they 
whirl away to some safer ball-room, and renew 
the merriment. On every floating log as we 
approach it, there is a convention of turtles, 
sitting in calm debate, like mailed barons, till, 
as we draw near, they plump into the water, and 
paddle away for some subaqueous Runnymede. 
Beneath, the shy and stately pickerel vanishes 
at a glance, shoals of minnows glide, black and 
bearded pouts frisk aimlessly, soft water-newts 
hang poised without motion, and slender pick- 
erel-frogs cease occasionally their submerged 
croaking, and, darting to the surface, with swift 
vertical strokes, gulp a mouthful of fresh air, 
and down again to renew the moist soliloquy. 
Time would fail us to tell of the feathered 
life around us,—the blackbirds that build 
securely in these thickets, the stray swallows 
that dip their wings in the quiet waters, and 
the kingfishers that still bring, as the ancients 
fabled, halcyon days. Yonder stands, against 
the shore, a bittern, motionless in that wreath 
of mist which makes his long-legged person al- 
most as dim as his far-off booming by night. 
There poises a hawk, before sweeping down 
to some chosen bough in the dense forest ; 
and there flies a pair of blue jays, screaming, 
from tree to tree. As for wild quadrupeds, the 
race is almost passed away. Far to the north, 
