THERE'S NOTHING LIKE A CANOE. A friend in New England recently put in an asparagus bed he won't be able to enjoy a meal from for two years. Also spinach for this summer, unions for fall, Jerusalem artichokes for a Christmas treat--but he was ready for some pleasure now; and that's what his canoe was for.

Right away on the river, he heard a mating snlpe flinging itself about the sky in order to impress its female, with a faint laughing ululation such as children make when hooting with their hands in front of their mouths. He saw some sandpipers, or "teeter-tails," tipping their tails as they searched for invertebrates. A gray marsh hawk seized a dazed and chilly frog before his eyes, and half a dozen geese were still dawdling south of their nesting ground in passionate but wary pairs.