92 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 



The grasses roll in undulating waves, capped by a 

 white crest of parsnip and hemlock blossoms ; the 

 dark irregular patches of flags are the shadows of 

 clouds, the light streaks of wild rice are shoals, a 

 hovering Marsh Hawk is a Gull. A stately white- 

 winged schooner''^ comes up the river; her hull is 

 hidden by the meadow grasses ; she is sailing through 

 the sea of my fancy. 



This is an impressionist's view of the meadows. 

 Now let us leave our rocky lookout and examine 

 them more in detail. The meadow we are leaving is 

 a meadow of all summer ; the one we are approach- 

 ing is a meadow clad in all the glory of its August 

 flowers. One might think Nature was holding a 

 flower show here, so gorgeous is the display. Tlie 

 railway track at the edge of the marsh is apparently 

 an endless aisle bordered by a rich exhibit of flowers. 

 Clusters of thoroughwort and 25nrple loose-strife 

 grow so abundantly they give color to the fore- 

 ground, through which wild sunflowers make streaks 

 of gold. There are solid beds of purple asters on 

 the drier land, and delicate snow-white saggitarias 

 in the sloughs. Jewel flowers sparkle through the 

 flags, and convolvulus hangs from the reeds, its own 

 foliage scarce showing, or, growing with the fra- 

 grant climbing hempweed, it forms banks of dense 

 vegetation. The scarlet lobelia darts upward like a 

 tongue of flame, startling in its intense brilliancy. 

 There are burnet, vervain, gerardia, and running 

 groundnut. But it is the marsh*" mallow which, 

 more than any other flower, gives beauty to the 

 meadow. It grows here with wasteful luxuriance, 

 and the dark masses of flags serve as a frame for 



