14 BEACH GRASS 



plate for twenty minutes to the mysterious scene, 

 I patiently waited and watched during this in- 

 terval but saw no track-maker. The sky on the 

 sandy horizon — on the crest of a sand wave — 

 looked black in comparison with the white sand, 

 but this starless darkness soon merged into the 

 vault of the heavens with its suggestion of blue, 

 studded sparsely with stars. Only those of 

 greater magnitude showed in the brilliant light 

 of the moon; the light of the lesser ones was 

 quenched. We pay for the light of the full 

 moon by loss of starlight just as we pay for sun- 

 shine by loss of moonlight. About five in the 

 morning the moon set large and red, and the 

 lesser as well as the greater stars blazed out, and 

 the path of the Milky Way appeared across the 

 heavens. 



After a period of unfavorable wind or weather, 

 ?. perfect night may come when the floodgates of 

 bird migration are opened, and the pent-up mul- 

 titudes, waiting for this chance, pour along the 

 aerial channels. Such a night followed Septem- 

 ber 9, 1916, and it was my good fortune to spend 

 it in the dunes and on the beach. The air. 



