144 ON THE BIRDS' HIGHWAY 



teal might pump by, disappearing in a dis- 

 tant slough as one was rowing homeward. 

 Late in the evening the quawk of a night 

 heron would come in the cabin door. The 

 guide, on his early morning row, saw a loon 

 occasionally through the mist — he seemed 

 to vanish, as it did under the sun's rays. 



As one looks out upon the hills sur- 

 rounding the lake, one sees here and there 

 great patches of burnt ground. " Painter 

 Hill " has such a one on its northern side. 

 Far up behind the camp, a trail, running 

 at right angles from the one leading to the 

 " Big Trees," through tangles of wild rasp- 

 berry, reaches a tract of ground, growing 

 with little birches, great brakes and tower- 

 ing with gaunt trunks of the perished for- 

 est. There we found in the decayed mass of 

 fallen trees the marks where " partridges " 

 had been dusting themselves, and once 

 flushed a bird. White-throated sparrows, 

 juncos and vesper sparrows inhabited the 

 underbrush, rose-breasted grosbeaks, scar- 

 let tanagers, purple and gold finches, the 

 birches and other low first growth, while 

 stray bands of warblers would wander over 

 the whole of the living foliage. The 

 characteristic birds of the burnt ground, 



