Hunt, on August Birds of Lake Sebago. 17 



The week of August Gth to 13th, 190G, was spent in com- 

 pany with Mr. B. W. Griffiths at the head of Lake Sebago, 

 making the httle village of South Naples our headquarters. 

 We were ten miles from the nearest railroad station (Mattocles 

 'on the Main Central), and in the way of showing that the 

 country retained some of its wildness, I might mention that in 

 returning from a boat trip up the Muddy River, which en- 

 tered the lake at South Naples, we surprised a doe and fawn 

 within a mile of the settlement, also the beach from which we 

 took our daily swnm was marked with footprints of deer. 

 Back from the lake the villages are small and the farms few 

 and scattered. 



According to Mr. Hiofifmann's faunal map of New England, 

 in that excellent little volume "The Birds of New England 

 and Eastern New York," Lake Sebago lies in the Transition 

 or Alleghenian Zone. 



August is not the ideal month for field work but one can 

 always learn something and there are two- facts that made 

 deep impressions in my mind. First, that though one be sur- 

 rounded by a boreal fauna and flora, the temperature can 

 climb very high indeed. Second, that the State of New Jersey 

 do-es not hold as big a monopoly upon the mosquito as I had 

 always been led to believe. We had them both in abundance 

 — heat and mosquitoes — and I must confess that the cool 

 crystal waters of the lake were far more enticing than the 

 mosquito-ridden woods. But although our swims were possibly 

 too frequent and a bit lengthy, we did not neglect the birds, 

 and though the following is by no means a complete list, I 

 cannot help but feel that it includes most of the birds to be 

 found here during early August. 



One of the men employed in the saw mill told me that the 

 Wood Duck and Black Duck both breed about the lake. 

 He also said that a great many of the small birds that v/ere 

 now becoming fairly common had been almost unknown in 

 that section until two or three years ago. 



Very few hawks were seen and no owls. The total absence 

 of White-throated Sparrows surprised me, as also did the 



