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IN TAMAL LAND


melodious warble, which he repeats with never-tiring zeal.
   Of the fall birds, the crows and Brewer's Blackbirds are the most notable. Though the former are with us the entire year, it is in the fall, in flocking time, that their loud caw-caw-caw is heard as in bands they circle above the tree-tops; while Brewer's Blackbirds, sleek, glossy fellows, after foraging throughout the day in the valleys, soar to some huge dead pine tree and chatter through the twilight hours, flying

Picture

A SPORTSMAN.

when night arrives, with one accord, to a patch of tules in some pond where they settle for the night.
   Of the non-migrating birds, the little dark brown Wren Tit, inhabitant of thickets; the dull gray and white Titmouse, frequenter of oaks; the friendly little California Chickadee; not to mention the great horned Owls with their deep hoo-hoo-hoo, the barn-owls with their treble screech, and lastly the beautiful Quail, are but a few of the interesting native inhabitants of Marin.
   Owing to the widely scattered population in the northern


IN TAMAL LAND

103

Picture

NEAR TO NATURE'S HEART.


IN TAMAL LAND

105


part of Marin County, this section is consequently more wild and natural in appearance than the southern half.
   Lying at the base of a range of high hills which slope somewhat abruptly to the Ocean are the most interesting natural phenomena in this region. This is a chain of sparkling lakes, three in number, which at first view on descending the precipitous roadway seem to be connected with the Ocean so near its edge do they appear.
   Upon close approach, however, we discovered them to be of fresh water and at an elevation of nine hundred feet above sea level, but their close proximity to the Ocean and the cavernous inlets opening from the sea would intimate their former connection.
   On the shore of the largest of these, Shafter Lake, is located, amid the luxuriant copse wood, the Point Reyes Sports-

Picture

A BEND IN THE ROAD.



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©1999, 2000, 2001 for MARDOS Collection, T&C Miller