IN A PALACE OF REEDS. 125 



brake watching a green-heron's nest, a 

 low sweet " turUlee" much like the wood- 

 thrush's warble or thrill, called my eyes to a 

 bird not ten feet away from me. I was well 

 hidden and motionless, so that I was not dis- 

 covered until after I had thoroughly identified 

 the hermit. It repeated the low, musical trill 

 several times, and when at length I frightened 

 it by some movement, it flew away uttering a 

 keen squeak or chirp. 



Having digressed thus far it is pardonable 

 to go a step further and declare that the blue- 

 jay sings. I have heard it sing a low, tender 

 wheedling song which seems never to have at- 

 tracted the notice of naturalists. A wood- 

 duck had her nest in the hollow of a plane- 

 tree just across the little river from the palace. 

 I watched her go out and in. She made her 

 wings silent, so as not to attract notice, going 

 through the air with as little noise as an owl. 

 Her mate, a beautifully painted fellow, lin- 

 gered about the brakes in the vicinity, occa- 

 sionally uttering a sly quack. How the young 

 when hatched were conveyed safely to the 

 ground we failed to discover. One morning 

 they were in the river swimming beside their 

 mother as if they had always been there, dod- 

 dling their heads and arching their necks just 

 like old ducks. 



There was an island a mile up the river 

 whither we often went, to fish off shore for 

 bass, and to sketch kildee-plover and sand- 

 pipers. On one end of the island grew a 

 patch of cane and rush-grass into which we 

 tracked a fawn ; but the shy creature hid so 

 successfully that we could not find it. A wild 

 turkey had it's nest in the edge of this jungle 



