A startled flutter in the shrub- 
bery and a glimpse of white and 
neutral colours curving and disappearing among 
the bushes revealed the secret of a Mourning 
Dove* With maternal instinct she followed a low 
and concealed course, but her rustling strokes de- 
clared her identity. They made a marked contrast 
with the silent flight of a recently disturbed Whip- 
Poor-Will, The trees had been cleared away three 
years before, and the second growth rising at will 
among the stumps and struggling for supremacy 
with a vagrant entanglement of Raspberry bushes 
made an ideal nesting-place, A rambling, sluggish 
depression held sufficient weed-clogged water to cover 
the mossy roots and leave an opening where the 
Muskrats swam and waded by turns or surveyed an 
intruder with unfriendly looks before disappearing 
for their submerged tunnels. On the higher ground 
the few stumps that had not been curtained by the 
bushes made comfortable resting places for the lazy 
Woodchucks basking in the sun. Squirrels chirred 
87 
