10 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



before the eye ; and displaying, in her elegant sweeps 

 along the air, her sharp-pointed wings, and her bright 

 silvery hue. — She is beautiful also, not only on the 

 wing, but when she floats, in numerous assemblies on 

 the water; or when she rests on the shore, dotting 

 either one or the other with white spots ; which, minute 

 as they are, are very picturesque : . . . giving life and 

 spirit to a view." 



He seems to be describing our very bird. I do not 

 remember to have seen them over or in our river mead- 

 ows when there was not ice there. They come annually 

 a-fishing here like royal hunters, to remind us of the 

 sea and that our town, after all, lies but further up a 

 creek of the universal sea, above the head of the tide. 

 So ready is a deluge to overwhelm our lands, as the 

 gulls to circle hither in the spring freshets. To see a 

 gull beating high over our meadowy flood in chill and 

 windy March is akin to seeing a mackerel schooner on 

 the coast. It is the nearest approach to sailing vessels 

 in our scenery. I never saw one at Walden. Oh, how 

 it salts our fresh, our sweet-watered Fair Haven l all at 

 once to see this sharp-beaked, greedy sea-bird beating 

 over it ! For a while the water is brackish to my eyes. 

 It is merely some herring pond, and if I climb the - 

 eastern bank I expect to see the Atlantic there covered 

 with countless sails. We are so far maritime, do not 

 dwell beyond the range of the seagoing gull, the littoral 

 birds. Does not the gull come up after those suckers 

 which I see ? 2 He is never to me perfectly in harmony 



1 [Fairhaven Pond, or Bay, in the Sudbury River.] 



'* [Dead suckers, which he goes on to philosophize about.] 



