crows were busy trying (it seemed to me) to 

 find an oyster, a crab— somethilig big enough to 

 choke, for just one minute, the gobbling, gulping 

 clamor of their infant brood. But the dear de- 

 vouring monsters could not be choked, though 

 once or twice I thought by their strangling cries 

 that father crow, in sheer desperation, had 

 brought them oysters with the shells on. Their 

 a\rful gaggings died away at dusk. Besides the 

 crows and fish-hawks, a harrier would now and 

 thencome skimming close along the grass. Higher 

 up, the turkey -buzzards circled all day long ; 

 and once, setting my blood leaping and the fish- 

 hawks screaming, there sailed over, far away in 

 the blue, a bald-headed eagle, his snowy neck 

 and tail flashing in the sunlight as he careened 

 among the clouds. 



In its blended greens the marsh that morning 

 offered one of the most satisfying drinks of color 

 my eyes ever tasted. The areas of different 

 grasses were often acres in extent, so that the 

 tints, shading from the lightest pea-green of the 

 thinner sedges to the blue-green of the rushes, to 

 the deep emerald-green of the hay-grass, merged 

 across their broad bands into perfect harmony. 

 [53] 



