DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 37 



had made but little growth. Both of the tidal sparrows were 

 plentiful. The Seasides were singing, and I found a nest under 

 construction that I concluded was of that bird. It was about 

 eighteen inches up from the ground and attache<l to the stems 

 of some reeds or coarse grass of a previous year's growth. A 

 single Marsh Hawk came quartering over the meadows, whirl- 

 ing and dropping suddenly when some attractive bit caught his 

 eye. I needed a specimen of a Clapper Rail, and spent a good 

 deal of time beating the borders of the smaller creeks for a long 

 time without success. I had about decided to give it up and go 

 over to the sand dunes and beach when as I passed around the 

 end of a small creek one flushed from my feet, and was secured. 



I found few birds on the beach, which was separated from 

 the grassy marsh by a sand dune in places fifteen to twenty feet 

 high, cut through in many places by wind and tide. Bam 

 Swallows were numerous. I saw a few Bank Swallows and one 

 or two Tree Swallows, and right at the inlet, which is not over 

 two hundred yards across, and the only opening f<ir the broad 

 waters of Rehoboth and Indian River Bays, I counted thirty- 

 five Ospreys busily fishing. Occasionally one would go off in- 

 land with a load, or another would alight on shore, back a short 

 distance inland to lunch. The poles of the telephone line con- 

 necting the two nearest life-saving stations seemed to be favorite 

 resting-places in the absence of trees. My companions were on 

 the opposite side of the inlet, and as I walked back to meet the 

 boat they were sending for me, I saw a flock of ten or more 

 Red-breasted Mergansers, and the next morning early two of 

 the larger species of Merganser flew over me at very close range. 

 The date seemed rather late, I thought. Several Solitary and 

 numerous Spotted Sandpipers were feeding along the m.irgins 

 of the stream, the former singly, the other in small bunches. 

 Several flocks of Least Sandpipers were seen, and a bunch of 

 eight or ten of an unidentified Sandpiper went by out of range. 



As I watched the fi.shermen, two Black-headed Gulls went up 

 the coast well out to sea. They seemed intent on going north- 

 ward, and kept their course steadily. Our boatmen were not 

 familiar with them as nesting thereabouts, and I saw no others 

 and no Terns. This was the immediate locality where I shot 

 the Forster's Tern two years previously. 



