46 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



fly, they swim about witli their heads erect, and then, 

 gliding along a few feet with their bodies just touching 

 the surface, rise heavily with much splashing and fly 

 low at first, if not suddenly aroused, but otherwise rise 

 directly to survey the danger. The cunning sportsman 

 is not in haste to desert his position, but waits to ascer- 

 tain if, having got themselves into flying trim, they will 

 not return over the ground in their course to a new 

 resting-place. 



April 10, 1852. Took boat at Stedman Buttrick's, a 

 gunner's boat, smelling of rauskrats and provided with 

 slats for bushing the boat. Having got into the Great 

 Meadows, after grounding once or twice on low spits 

 of grass ground, we begin to see ducks which we have 

 scared, flying low over the water, always with a striking 

 parallelism in the direction of their flight. They fly like 

 regulars. They are like rolling-pins with wings. A few 

 gulls, sailing like hawks, seen against the woods ; crows ; 

 white-bellied swallows even here, already, which, I sup- 

 pose, proves that their insect food is in the air. . . . 

 Ducks most commonly seen flying by twos or threes. 



From Carlisle Bridge we saw many ducks a quar- 

 ter of a mile or more northward, black objects on the 

 water, and heard them laugh something like a loon. 

 Might have got near enough to shoot them. A fine sight 

 to see them rise at last, about fifty of them, apparently 

 black ducks. ^ While they float on the water they ap- 



^ [Probably not black ducks, to judg'e by what he says of their note. 

 It seems possible that they might have been brant, though brant are 

 extremely rare in fresh water in New England.] 



