rk
water. The houses vary in size, some being built as high as five feet.
The beaver is rarely seen early in the day, most of his work is done at
night, so the best time to watch for him is just before dusk or perhaps
an hour before sundown. It is not well to wait to see the beaver if your
trail back to camp is a long one, leading through dense forests. You
would far better postpone making its acquaintance than to risk going
over the, perhaps, treacherous paths after dark. Night comes early in
the woods and darkness shuts down closely while it is still light in the
open. If your camp is near the beaver house or beaver dam, or if your
trip can be made by water, then, with no anxiety about your return, you
can sit down and calmly await the coming of this most skilful of all
building animals, and may see him add material to his house, or go on
with his work of cutting down a tree, as a reward for your patience.

=Fish-Hawk, Osprey=

On the shore you will also find the fish-hawk, or osprey; a
well-mannered bird he is said to be, who fishes diligently and attends
strictly to his own business. The fish-hawk's nest will generally be at
the top of a dead tree where no one may disturb or look into it, though,
as the accompanying photograph shows, it is sometimes found on rocks
near the ground. The young hawks have a way of their own of defending
themselves from any climbing creature, and to investigators of the nest
the results are disastrously disagreeable as well as laughable. As the
intruder climbs near, the baby birds put their heads over the sides of
the nest and empty their stomachs upon him. This is vouched for by a
well-known writer who claims to have gone through the experience.

The female osprey is larger and stronger than the male. On slowly moving
wings she sails over the water, dropping suddenly to clutch in her
strong talons the fish her keen eyes have detected near the surface of
the water. Fish are fish to the osprey and salt waters or fresh are the
same to her. I have watched the bird plunge into the waves of the ocean,
on the coast of Maine, to bring out a cunner almost too large for her to
carry, and I have seen her drop into the placid waters of an Adirondack
lake for lake-trout in the same manner.

=Blue Heron=

The great blue heron is one of the shore folk and his metallic blue-gray
body gleams in the sunlight, as you sight him from your canoe, standing
tall and slim, a lonely figure on the bank.