. Birds and nature . ertainly give us some fineseed. LOVEDAY AlMIRA NeLSON. THE SCARLET IBIS. When tides have dropped below the marshs reach,While on their fishing ground the herons line. The scarlet ibis stalks the sandy beach. In sea-blown plumes, with steel-blue fringes fine. And past them, sooty terns with dusky eyes,Run nimbly on, and curlews whistling clear; But bar and sea-walk when the waters rise They leave, and seek the open marshes near. The marshes! rich in herbs and tawny salty shrubs, which veil the trodden roads Of water-fowl to rounded pools like glass, Or feeding hau
. Birds and nature . ertainly give us some fineseed. LOVEDAY AlMIRA NeLSON. THE SCARLET IBIS. When tides have dropped below the marshs reach,While on their fishing ground the herons line. The scarlet ibis stalks the sandy beach. In sea-blown plumes, with steel-blue fringes fine. And past them, sooty terns with dusky eyes,Run nimbly on, and curlews whistling clear; But bar and sea-walk when the waters rise They leave, and seek the open marshes near. The marshes! rich in herbs and tawny salty shrubs, which veil the trodden roads Of water-fowl to rounded pools like glass, Or feeding haunts, or sheltered, dimmed abodes. With nut-brown eyes, and wrinkled rosy face, The ibis stands and each its nook illumes;Or slowly on, in sunlit files they pace. Or preen in groups, their glowing scarlet plumes. From dawn to dusk, their splendid beauty lights These sombre fens and shingle beaches gray,Where still the curlews call when sea-swung nights Have drowned the sunken colors of the day. —Eliza Wood worth. i\. 632 IOLVSTICTUS. (Polvsfictus COPYRIGHT 1904, BV A. W. MUMFORO, CHICAGO THE CINNABAR FUNGUS. {Polystictus cinnabarinus.) To the lover of nature a trip throughan open forest is one of the most enjoy-able forms of recreation. The trees arebeautiful with their graceful branchesand their varying foliage, and in earlyspring here and there one may find atree that is favored with lovely the ground the forests do notlose their attractiveness and are evenmore interesting to the student, for hereare found the flowering herbaceous plantsand many of the lower forms of plantlife. Even the fallen tree trunks and oldstumps—dead and decaying—are beauti-fied by living green mosses, gray andbrownish lichens and varicolored fungi. Not the least interesting of all thesegrowths of the forest are the fungi whichgrow only upon decaying wood. Someof these forms are edible and all areuseful for they begin the task in Na-tures laboratory of changing deca
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