The Music of the Marsh 



not an extremely liandsome bird. An old male has 

 a few beantifiil iridescent featliers around the back 

 of the neck and across the slioulders, the tlu'oat is 

 narrowly strijjed with cream; but the genei'al color 

 is a dark, dull brown. He has smooth, scaled legs 

 and feet of greenish yellow, full bright eyes, and 

 quite a lively coloring on his elegantly shaped bill. 

 He is a romjjing, mischievous, free, wild bird, and 

 no marsh choir woidd be complete without his clear, 

 ringing notes. 



If it be fair to laugh at anything that is young 

 and hel2)less, then a l)aby sheitpoke is almost, if 

 not quite, the most laughable s])ecimen in birdland. 

 A long, slender, yellow-tinted beak ; long, slender 

 neck; long, slender legs; long, slender body; big, 

 l>opping eyes; an insatiable appetite, and vocal 

 ])owers to 2)roclaim it loudly around the marsh. 



Of the same location as the yellow lily are tlie 

 water hyacinths. Their leaves lift above the sur- 

 face, are near one-fourth the size of the yello^\' lily. Water 

 and lance-shaped. They are a crisp dark-green Hyacinths 

 and stiffly upstanding. The stems of the leaf and 

 bloom are -^ery similar to the yellow lily, exce])t 

 that the blooms rise on an average of six or eight 

 inches higher and are a long head set with tiny 

 bracts, in each of Avhich blooms an exquisite little 

 blue flower. Blooming l^egins at the base and 

 slowly climbs to the tip, the lower flowers fading 

 before the top are all open. The head is of pm-e 



409 



