32 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



or alteration by the hand of man, before 1875. Since then they have been 

 almost completely obliterated, and the space which they, as well as a considerable 

 portion of the neighboring bay, formerly covered, is now occupied by the gravel- 

 filled expanse, with its bordering parkway and sea-wall, which one crosses on 

 approaching Harvard Bridge from Cambridge by way of Massachusetts Avenue. 



Equally primitive and even more extensive were the Brighton Marshes 

 beloved by Longfellow and Lowell, by whom they have been immortalized in 

 verse and prose. To these eminent poets, as well as to a few other equally 

 sympathetic if less eloquent lovers of nature, they were beautiful and attractive 

 at all seasons ; but from the standpoint of more practical men, such as those 

 who have since so nearly compassed their destruction, they were but waste 

 lands, unsightly to the eye and more or less prejudicial to the health of human- 

 kind. 



The river flowed directly through them, restricting, however, to the Brigh- 

 ton side, the broader and fairer portions which have been lately converted into 

 Soldier's Field and the neighboring parkway and speedway. These were origi- 

 nally clothed, for the most part, with the short, fine, dark green grass peculiar 

 to salt marshes ; but tall sedges, seashore goldenrod, and other maritime plants 

 marked the courses of winding, natural creeks, and straightj artificial ditches, 

 which were alternately filled and emptied by the ceaseless tides. There were 

 also many shallow pools bordered by bare, muddy ground, the favorite resorts 

 of various kinds of waders. In July and August, when the haymakers were at 

 work, building up the great stacks which added so much to the picturesqueness 

 of the landscape later in the year, the Brighton or ' Longfellow Marshes,' as 

 they have come to be called, literally swarmed at times — especially just before 

 easterly storms — with Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers. They also at- 

 tracted Ring-necked Plover and Pectoral Sandpipers in fair numbers, besides a 

 few Upland Plover, and Yellow-legs of both species. During exceptionally dry 

 autumns they were often frequented by Wilson's Snipe and Carolina Rails. 

 Herons of several kinds visited them at one or another season, attracted, no 

 doubt, by the multitudes of small, sluggish fishes, locally known as ' Cobblers,' 

 which inhabited all the creeks and ditches. The Bittern and Great Blue Heron 

 occurred only sparingly, during migration, but from May to October the Green 

 Herons came frequently by day, and the Night Herons very numerously at 

 evening, from their roosts in the Fresh Pond Swamps. The Night Herons 

 attracted especial attention, as they crossed the intervening belt of elevated and 

 rather thickly settled country in the gathering twilight, by their loud calls and 

 impressive flight. 



The Cambridgeport Marshes were visited by most of the birds just men- 

 tioned, as well as by three forms of the Sharp-tailed Finch, the Acadian and 

 Nelson's, which occurred only during migration (the Acadian being sometimes 



