50 THE WREN. 
report of the 19th showed that six Ruddies, twenty-nine Mud Hens 
and three Baldpates were on the pond, besides a few wild Black 
Ducks. 
TWO DAYS AT MONOMOY ISLAND. 
Although the name, Monomoy Island, had been familiar to me 
for some time, I had no clear idea of what the island really was until 
this fall. Nominally, it is an island but in reality, one hardly needs 
to wet his feet in crossing from it to the mainland. It starts at 
Chatham and stretches about ten miles southwest toward Nan- 
tucket. At no point, is it more than one mile wide. The eastern 
side is a straight, steep, sandy beach from which you look right out 
to sea. The western side forms the boundary of Chatham Bay. 
The shore line is very irregular and sandy flats extend for miles out 
into the bay. The beach itself is sandy or pebbly or weedy as the 
case may be. Every now and then, the beach is interrupted by 
* small tidal channels which run up into the marshes. Inland, the 
island is a series of marshes and low, sandy hills covered with 
coarse grass. There are no trees on the island at all. Except for 
two Live Saving Stations and half a dozen scattered shanties, it is 
uninhabited by man. ‘Two friends and I spent two days at Mono- 
moy, making our headquarters on board the launch in which we 
came. Although we did some shooting, to me the birds we did not 
shoot were more interesting than those we did. 
Sept. 7, the morning after we arrived, we walked from about the 
middle round the southwest end of the island. We first crossed a 
marshy stretch to reach the ocean side. In this marsh, we flushed 
a large flock of migrating Meadowlarks, one lone Bobolink in 
immature plumage, several Savannah and Song Sparrows, and one, 
possibly more, Sharp-tailed Sparrows. Along the beach Sanderling 
and Semipalmated Sandpipers were frequent in small flocks. Com- 
mon Terns were flying past continually. Twice Loons flew over- 
head, showing to great advantage the peculiar rudderlike position 
of the feet. During that walk we saw eight Pomarine and two 
Parasitic Jaegers. I had always considered this family of birds 
to be decidedly rare and to see so many was a great treat. 
