SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



plunged, and swam until lie came within sight 

 of some boats at their moorings. Turning in 

 alarm he regained the bank and by leaps and 

 bounds disappeared over the marsh in the 

 direction of a wooded island. The Virginia 

 deer takes to salt water as to the manor born. 

 On a bleak March day in 1909 I landed with 

 Ralph Hofeiann and Glover Allen on Milk 

 Island, a good half-mile off the end of Cape 

 Ann, to watch at closer range a snowy owl. 

 The owl flew to the mainland, but to our sur- 

 prise a lovely doe began bounding over the 

 low bushes, throwing up her white flag of a 

 tail in a manner that seemed to light up the 

 whole islet. It is impossible to accept Ab- 

 bott Thayer's ingenious theory— which only 

 an artist could have invented— that the white 

 tail against the sky in the night-time so cuts 

 up the outline of the animal that the wolf, 

 stealing up for the fatal leap, is confused at 

 the crucial moment and the ^' obliterated " 

 deer escapes. A stuffed deer, skilfully dis- 

 posed by the enthusiastic artist, seems to 

 prove this theory so forcibly that some are led 

 to accept it, forgetting the wonderful sense 

 of smell on the part of the wolf, which must 

 be so overwhelming at such close range, that, 



42 



