Ocean Wanderers 



At length I saw through the haze what I took to 

 be the right one. After a short row against the 

 tide and an increasing wind, just as I was almost 

 within hail it squared away and left me. Then I 

 took another course, and, after nearly an hour's 

 futile effort, had begun to wonder what my chances 

 were of being able to row that heavy craft against 

 the wind to the distant invisible shore, without food 

 or water, when the familiar schooner loomed up 

 not far away, and I was far from sorry to set foot 

 again upon her ancient and slimy deck. Though I 

 had a camera with me on this trip, it was before 

 the days when I realized its value as an adjunct to 

 bird-study. I would give a good deal now to be 

 off there again among that assemblage of birds, 

 properly equipped. 



Early the next morning the fog was very dense 

 on shore, and I found quite a few of the Phalaropes, 

 in small groups, on the marshes, feeding like the 

 other numerous waders, at the edges of the pools. 

 They were gone, though, as soon as the fog lifted. 

 The fishermen say that this is about the only 

 occasion when they ordinarily come to land. One 

 morning, early in this same August, before I had 

 arrived, the fog was especially dense, and at day- 

 break they encountered very large numbers of the 

 little things on the flats, as they were starting for the 

 day's fishing. The birds departed as soon as it was 

 fairly light. Occasionally great numbers of Phal- 

 aropes are reported on the New England coast, but 

 I have been off there hundreds of times, in various 

 years, only to see comparatively small, scattering 

 flocks. Hence I incline to the opinion that, in the 



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