158 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



still more a nighthawk, with its long curved wings. He 

 flies so low westward that I lose sight of him against 

 the dark hillside and trees. 



April 16, 1856. As I walk along the bank of the 

 Assabet, I hear the yeep yeep yeep yeeep yeeep yeep, or 

 perhaps peop, of a fish hawk, repeated quite fast, but 

 not so shrill and whistling as I think I have heard it, 

 and directly I see his long curved wings undulating 

 over Pinxter Swamp, now flooded. 



Aug. 25, 1856. I cross the meadows in the face of 

 a thunder-storm rising very dark in the north. There 

 were several boats out, but their crews soon retreated 

 homeward before the approaching storm. It came on 

 rapidly, with vivid lightning striking the northern 

 earth and heavy thunder following. Just before, and 

 in the shadow of, the cloud, I saw, advancing majesti- 

 cally with wide circles over the meadowy flood, a fish 

 hawk and, apparently, a black eagle (maybe a young 

 white-head). The first, with slender curved .wings and 

 silvery breast, four or five hundred feet high, watching 

 the water while he circled slowly southwesterly. What 

 a vision that could detect a fish at that distance ! The 

 latter, with broad black wings and broad tail, thus : 



O hovered only about one hundred feet high ; evi- 

 dently a different species, and what else but an 

 eagle? They soon disappeared southwest, cut- 

 ting off a bend. The thunder-shower passed off to the 

 southeast. 



Oct. 26, 1857. A storm is a new, and in some re- 

 spects more active, life in nature. Larger migrating 

 birds make their appearance. They, at least, sympa- 



