. How to study birds; a practical guide for amateur bird-lovers and camera-hunters . ley and adjacent districts, through whichthere is still a considerable migration, both In springand fall. In meadow or morass the rails become much moreabundant than in summer, particularly In early autumnon frosty mornings, and even into October. As wewade about, they flutter up feebly before us, withdangling legs, looking like young birds that canhardly fly. They only fly a few yards and then dropback into the tangle, where they run like witches, itbeing almost impossible to flush them again for thepresent.
. How to study birds; a practical guide for amateur bird-lovers and camera-hunters . ley and adjacent districts, through whichthere is still a considerable migration, both In springand fall. In meadow or morass the rails become much moreabundant than in summer, particularly In early autumnon frosty mornings, and even into October. As wewade about, they flutter up feebly before us, withdangling legs, looking like young birds that canhardly fly. They only fly a few yards and then dropback into the tangle, where they run like witches, itbeing almost impossible to flush them again for thepresent. The Virginia rail can be distinguished fromthe sora by being slightly larger, with a much longerbill and reddish-tinted under-parts. The Americancoot and the Florida gallinule are mostly seen swim-ming in some wet morass among the reeds, or on amarshy pond among lily-pads. In wading the bogsin autumn one will flush the American bittern moreoften than at any other time, and also the green heron,and see the solitary great blue heron, an enormousbird, flap warily off beyond •FOLLOWING THE WATER-BIRDS 159 To speak of the swimming birds, there is probablyno more familiar sight in this line than to see a grebe,or a small, scattered party of them, bobbing around ina pond among the lily-pads. Most persons call themducks, but one can readily distinguish them by theirpractice of frequently diving and remaining abouta minute under water. It Is a very pretty sight towatch them. Two kinds are ordinarily seen in East-ern waters: the little brown fellow with a bill like ahen Is the pied-billed grebe or dabchick; the other isthe horned grebe, which in autumn has a white breast,but In spring quite a gay plumage with noticeabletufts of reddish-brown and black on the head. In the longitude of the Dakotas we find the west-ern, Holboells, and eared grebes nesting In thesloughs. The advent of the great loon and the some-what smaller red-throated loon into the larger pondsor lakes is a no
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1910
