12 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



far away on the top of a muskrat-cabin which rises just 

 above the water opposite the Hubbard Bath. When I 

 get round within sixty rods of him, ten minutes later, 

 he still stands on the same spot, constantly turning his 

 head to every side, looking out for foes. Like a wooden 

 image of a bird he stands there, heavy to look at ; head, 

 breast, beneath, and rump pure white ; slate-colored wings 

 tipped with black and extending beyond the tail, — the 

 herring gull. I can see clear down to its webbed feet. 

 But now I advance, and he rises easily, goes off north- 

 eastward over the river with a leisurely flight. At 

 Clamshell Hill I sweep the river again, and see, stand- 

 ing midleg deep on the meadow where the water is very 

 shallow with deeper around, another of these wooden 

 images, which is harder to scare. I do not fairly distin- 

 guish black tips to its wings. It is ten or fifteen minutes 

 before I get him to rise, and then he goes off in the 

 same leisurely manner, stroking the air with his wings, 

 and now making a great circle back on its course, so you 

 cannot tell which way it is bound. By standing so long 

 motionless in these places they may perchance accom- 

 plish two objects, i. e., catch passing fish (suckers ?) like 

 a heron and escape the attention of man. Its utmost 

 motion was to plume itself once and turn its head about. 

 If it did not move its head, it would look like a decoy. 

 Our river is quite low for the season, and yet it is here 

 without freshet or easterly storm. It seems to take this 

 course on its migrations without regard to the state of 

 the waters. 



April 15, 1855. Before we rounded Ball's Hill, — 

 the water now beautifully smooth, — at 2.30 p. m., we 



_J! 



