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 isa 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. The 
railway track at the edge of the marsh is apparently 
an endless aisle bordered by a rich exhibit of flowers. 
Clusters of thoroughwort and purple 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 
