Here, for instance, are some of the birds we noted in a few days, many of them in great numbers: the catbird, robin, swamp canary-wren, sparrow, mocking-bird, whip-poor-will, red bird (a blaze of plumage), thrush (with a crown), yellowhammer, woodpecker, owl (immense fellows), hawk, eagle, kingfisher, jay, heron, quail, wild turkey, woodcock, buzzard, crow, and numerous brilliant little birds of many species, whose names we did not know. In the winter the lake is fairly covered with geese, swans, and all kinds of duck. The bat, which I believe is not a bird, is at home here.
But crossing the lake that first day we saw only one bird, a hawk of great size. The water of the lake was deliciously cool in the centre, where the average depth is about fifteen feet. Again and again we drank the sweet draught. Looking into it, no mirror could be more perfect in reflection. The flash of the paddles was brown, not crystal. On a day when the water broke (and we crossed the lake one day before the rush of a gale), the brown brandy-light through the lifting waves and the warm ruddiness of the breakers were singularly beautiful.
The lake is full of fish of many and excellent kinds, though it has never been fished in the
