74 NATURE'S CALENDAR 



August 2 former, repaired from year to year, form- 



■ ing well-known objects of interest in 



many localities. Half a century ago all 

 our sandy beaches, from Hatteras to the 

 Bay of Fundy, teer^ed in summer with a 

 screaming multitude of gulls and terns of 

 various species, watching over their vil- 

 lages of nests amid the sand hillocks- 

 hovering, wheeling, darting, tipping from 

 side to side upon outstretched wings, 

 their snowy plumage glistening alter- 

 nately against the sky or the sea. This 

 beauty and grace have almost disap- 

 peared from all easily accessible shores, 

 and the loss to all lovers of the sea-side is 

 irreparable. But this is not the whole of 

 the loss, for formerly all the marshes and 

 estuaries abounded the year round in 

 water- fowl, wading and sand -running 

 birds that have been killed or frightened 

 away, so that these places are now almost 

 deserted at the season when visitors from 

 inland most come to them. 



Certain small birds still enliven the 

 shores, however. Swallows are nowhere 

 more numerous, for they naturally belong 

 to the sea-shore cliffs, and the sterile but 

 grassy shore fields and dune tracts are 

 alive with several sorts of sparrows rarely 

 seen elsewhere — such as the sharp-tailed 

 and "sea-side " finches, the yellow-winged 

 and Savanna "grasshopper " sparrows, all 

 of which are of pallid colors and have 

 weak, prattling voices. Two very char- 

 acteristic little sprites of the salt marshes 



