23O Norton, The Harlequin Duck in Maine. [july 



plainly, when we paused to watch them. They were well into the 

 gutter, in a compact group and evidently had just finished feeding, 

 asthey now commenced drifting out, resting on the water as lightly 

 as gulls. One would rise on its tail to flap its wings and settle 

 back to shake its plumage, when the act would be repeated by 

 another, the whole flock turning around and around, in a leisurely 

 way, with such perfect ease that no effort was appreciable. 



Before we were within gun-shot, a Black-backed Gull came 

 high in the air, and as quickly as his sharp eye beheld us, he 

 gave two or three gutteral notes, whereupon every duck leaped 

 to wing and without a pause flew directly back over the route 

 by which they came, fading from view in the distance. From 

 the course they had followed we had no doubt, that they had 

 been driven from an isolated ledge lying two and a half miles 

 to sea, by a lobster man whom we saw, and that they returned 

 to it. And from the fact, that we found none of them around 

 these islands, and that the lobstermen living here and passing 

 the islet several times each week had seen but one flock of 

 seven birds during the winter, I am confident that they were 

 located at this ledge. On account of its exposed position, and 

 lack of good landing places, we may hope that they are secure 

 for some time to come. 



The day was so calm that we decided to move to the next 

 islands, two ledgy masses lying five miles to the eastward. Both 

 were destitute of trees and shrubs, the largest, about seventy 

 acres in extent, being the headquarters of two parties of lobster- 

 fishers, whose hospitalities we were glad to accept, as there was 

 no shelter for our tent. Shortly after noon the wind breezed 

 from the southwest and increased steadily throughout the 

 afternoon. The following morning we found a gale blowing 

 from the same point, and the sea breaking a hundred yards 

 from the tide mark. Just above the demolishing force of the 

 waves great windrows of sea froth, charged with a gray slime 

 were heaped, often rolling before the wind, or breaking into 

 fragments and flying. Several times I was buried to the shoulders 

 in the driven mass. When this reached the snow line, the water 

 was quickly absorbed leaving the scum at the surface. A few 

 hundred yards from the windward shore of the ' Big Island ' 



