206 RECREATION 



are active almost as soon as hatched. For location the tiny little chaps can make 



a few days they feed on insects, etc., picked headway against a considerable sea, the 



up from the surface of the water, but long mother breasting the waves, the rest 



before the feathers have started to push streaming out behind in her wake, 

 through the down, they are able to catch The male abandons his mate as soon as 



small fish. the young are hatched and betakes him- 



With the mother they carefully work the self with others of his sex to the largest 



shallow water along the margins of large lakes, or the sea coast, until after his 



lakes and rivers, diving all together, autumn moult. 



spreading out under the water and driving Unlike the other mergansers the female 



the schools of tiny fish before them until has a much longer crest than the male, 



all are satiated. They then repair to some The j ris of the ma j e is dark brown ; of the 



sheltering rock or floating log, and all female yellow, to yellowish brown. The 



cluster on it pruning their plumage and bm ig carmine with culmen blackish ; feet, 

 basking in the sun, until their voracious d on Red 



appetites compel them once more to forage. , • a -i -d f 



They feed entirely by day, and in rough breasted merganser in April Recreation I 



and stormy weather the broods keep to wrongly gave the ins of the male as brown 



sheltered bays. In fully adult males it is dark brownish red 



When these ducks have to change their to wine red. 



A SADDLE SONG. 



BY H. P. DICKINSON. 



I'll sing you a song of th' saddle 



An' a sinewy, swift little horse — 



Oh ! th' desert waste is a grewsome place 



An' th' sharp sand stings as it hits your 



face 

 An' th' whirlwinds block your course! 



From here to th' far off mountains 



Th' road is long an' dry — 



i here's a brassy glare to th' hell-like air 



That makes you dizzy an' hurts for fair 



An' th' buzzards reel through th' sky ! 



Th' little horse lopes with a steady gait 

 But he shakes his head an r snorts — 

 Th' sand an' th' glare are blinding you 

 An' you wonder if ever he'll take you 



through 

 To th' water your fierce thirst courts ! 



You take a drink from your canteen 



But th' water is flat an' hot — 



Oh ! the laughing, rippling cool, clear 



stream 

 Where th' shadows float an' you sit an' 



dream, 

 Can't you ever forget th' spot I 



"Here's How!" to th' far off desert! 

 "Here's Luck!" to th' swift little horse! 

 May his bones never bleach in th' sun's 



fierce glare, 

 May he stay by what water there is out 



there, 

 'Till his life has spent its force! 



