14 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



narrow-pointed, black-tipped wings, almost regular 

 semicircles like the new moon. As they circle beneath a 

 white scud in this bright air, they are almost invisible 

 against it, they are so nearly the same color. What glo- 

 rious fliers ! But few birds are seen ; only a crow or two 

 teetering along the water's edge looking for its food, 

 with its large, clumsy head, and on unusually long legs, 

 as if stretched, or its pants pulled up to keep it from the 

 wet, and now flapping off with some large morsel in its 

 bill ; or robins in the same place ; or perhaps the sweet 

 song of the tree sparrows from the alders by the shore, 

 or of a song sparrow or blackbird. The phcebe is 

 scarcely heard. Not a duck do we see ! 



March 22, 1858. There is a strong and cool northwest 

 wind. Leaving our boat just below N. Barrett's, we walk 

 down the shore. We see many gulls on the very opposite 

 side of the meadow, near the woods. They look bright- 

 white, like snow on the dark-blue water. It is surpris- 

 ing how far they can be seen, how much light they re- 

 flect, and how conspicuous they are. Being strung along 

 one every rod, they made me think of a fleet in line of 

 battle. We go along to the pitch pine hill off Abner 

 Buttrick's, and, finding a sheltered and sunny place, we 

 watch the ducks from it with our glass. There are not 

 only gulls, but about forty black ducks and as many 

 sheldrakes, and, I think, two wood ducks. The gulls ap- 

 pear considerably the largest and make the most show, 

 they are so uniformly light-colored. At a distance, as I 

 have said, they look like snowy masses, and even nearer 

 they have a lumpish look, like a mass of cotton, the 

 head being light as well as the breast. They are seen 



