1 g 15 j Bailey, Plum Island Night Herons. 425 



tages at the southern extremity or "Bluffs" add life and activity 

 to these portions during a few months of the year, and a federal 

 lighthouse and two life saving stations maintain a watchful eye 

 seaward. But between these points of activity lie long stretches 

 of bleak dunes and rolling ridges over which the winds of winter 

 sweep with relentless fury blowing the looser particles of sand much 

 in the manner of snow, cutting into, and altering somewhat the 

 contour of the hillocks from year to year. And in midsummer the 

 sun beats down with a torrid intenseness. 



Occasionally among the wind swept hollows between the dunes 

 one finds a rudely chipped implement or arrow head of flint (much 

 polished and worn by the action of the sand) a silent reminder of 

 the former wild inhabitants of the land. And like a hundred and 

 one other places along the Atlantic coast, this place has its tradi- 

 tional buried treasure, left years ago by Capt. Kidd, and now only 

 awaiting the search and industry of some keen prospector to bring 

 it to light. 



But bleak and desolate as the locality would seem, and at certain 

 seasons is certainly, the land is not wholly barren. In many 

 favored parts, sheltered from the force of the winds and shifting 

 sands, nature attempts to cover the nakedness of the soil with a 

 mantle of vegetation. The botanist may find much here of interest 

 in his particular line of study, and a survey of the entire region 

 would reward the student with a list of species quite respectable 

 in numbers. On the tops and leeward sides of the dunes one finds 

 the coarse beach grass, Ammophila armaria, growing abundantly, 

 its plumy heads nodding before every breeze, and its long slender 

 recurving leaves describing dainty arcs in the sand around their 

 base. 



And growing along in company with it but in lesser quantities is 

 the beach pea, Lathyrus maritimus, the long deep roots of both these 

 species acting beneficially as sand binders. Such coastwise species 

 as the yellow-eyed grass, Xyris flexuosa, and the beach heather, 

 Hudsonia lomentosa, find a congenial soil here, the last named, form- 

 ing in places -on the levels between the higher dunes, a pale green 

 carpet to cover the brown of the sand, and in its season of bloom, 

 further adds to the colored tapestry with a rich display of deep 

 yellow. And so I might continue, and enumerate a long list of 



