Song Birds and Water Fowl 
they are now almost as abundant as of old. 
Next to Muskegat, in point of numbers, is 
probably Penekese, an island made famous 
some years ago by its school of natural history; 
which, since the death of its eminent leader, 
Agassiz, has been transferred, at least in part, 
to Wood’s Holl, while the abandoned buildings 
erected for it, and standing empty for many 
years, were not long ago accidentally burned. 
About the middle of June I made a trip to 
this now almost deserted island for a brief study 
of the seaswallow. Leaving New York at night 
on a Fall River steamer, I arrived at Fall River 
early the next morning. ‘Thence a short rail- 
road ride brought me to the good old town of 
New Bedford, where I engaged a small yacht 
to take me to Penekese. It was a bright, cool 
morning, and the sail down the Acushnet River, 
and out into Buzzard’s Bay in a jaunty little 
craft, with a fine breeze and a jolly skipper, was 
the most delightful release from the limitations 
of dry city life that can be imagined. 
This island is the smallest but one of a group 
of five, lying to the west of Martha’s Vineyard, 
and has an area of hardly a hundred acres. 
But it is by far the most fertile of all the group, 
being almost entirely covered with grass, and 
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