Travels in a Tree-top 



41 



is the prettier. Beyond, in damper soil, the 

 glistening yellow of the sunflowers is really 

 too bright to be beautiful ; but not so where 

 the water is hidden by the huge circular leaves 

 of the lotus. They are majestic as well as 

 pretty, and the sparse bloom, yellow and 

 rosy pink, is even the more conspicuous by 

 reason of its background. How well the 

 birds know the wild meadow tradls ! They 

 have not forsaken my tree and its surround- 

 ings, but for one here I see a dozen there. 

 Mere inky specks, as seen from my point of 

 view, but I know them as marsh-wrens and 

 swamp-sparrows, kingbirds and red-wings, 

 that will soon form those enormous flocks 

 that add so marked a feature to the autumn 

 landscape. It needs no field-glass to mark 

 down the passing herons that, coming from 

 the river-shore, take a noontide rest in the 

 overgrown marsh. 



I had once, on the very spot at which I 

 was now looking, an unlooked-for adventure. 

 For want of something better to do, I pushed 

 my way into the weedy marsh until I reached 

 a prostrate tree-trunk that during the last 

 freshet had stranded there. It was a wild 

 place. The tall rose-mallow and wavy cat- 



4^ 



