154 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



crowned hen. When he launched off, he uttered a 

 clear whistling note, — iiilie jihe^ phe phe, phe phe^ — 

 somewhat like that of a telltale, but more round and 

 less shrill and rapid, and another, perhaps his mate, 

 fifty rods off, joined him. They flew heavily, as we 

 looked at them from behind, more like a blue heron 

 and bittern than I was aware of, their long wings un- 

 dulating slowly to the tip, like the heron's, and the 

 bodies seeming sharp like a gull's and unlike a hawk's. 



In the water beneath where he was perched, we found 

 many fragments of a pout, — bits of red gills, entrails, 

 fins, and some of the long flexible black feelers, — 

 scattered for four or five feet. This pout appeared to 

 have been quite fresh, and was probably caught alive. 

 We afterward started one of them from an oak over 

 the water a mile beyond, just above the boat-house, 

 and he skimmed off very low over the water, several 

 times striking it with a loud sound heard plainly sixty 

 rods off at least; and we followed him with our eyes 

 till we could only see faintly his undulating wings 

 against the sky in the western horizon. You could prob- 

 ably tell if any were about by looking for fragments of 

 fish under the trees on which they would perch. 



May 12, 1855. From beyond the orchard saw a large 

 bird far over the Cliff Hill, which, with my glass, I 

 soon made out to be a fish hawk advancing. Even at 

 that distance, half a mile off, I distinguished its gull- 

 like body, — pirate-like fishing body fit to dive, — and 

 that its wings did not curve upward at the ends like a 

 hen-hawk's (at least I could not see that they did), but 

 rather hung down. It came on steadily, bent on fishing, 



