DOWN FERRY LANE. 



47 



ley hay-field, and in the interval below, land that used 

 to belong to Capt. Samuel Coffin and other North End 

 worthies. Not far away spreads the Walker farm, 

 encircled by Horseshoe Pond and cut through by 

 Wattanummon 's Brook. Here is where the farmers 

 " thank the spring flood for its fertile slime." On 

 these meadows my ancestors shot wild turkeys, our 

 finest American bird, well into the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. Here is where my brothers used to go gunning 

 in their youth and bring home sand-peeps, plover, 

 ring-necks and yellow-legs. Most of the game birds, 

 of which so large a list has been furnished for this 

 book, can be seen in this region and kindred places 

 along the Merrimack. 



I know the bushes on the river bank as the haunt of 

 the black-billed cuckoo. A few years ago I saw an 

 otter swimming near shore. Mink used to be trapped 

 here in great numbers. The only glimpse I ever had 

 of one was October 30, 1903, at the Asylum causeway 

 leading to the little island in Long Pond. The white 

 spot on his throat was' the size and shape of a silver 

 dollar. He regarded our boat with much interest and 

 little fear. There is one flower that grows on the 

 Fan Road, which I have not noticed elsewhere; it is 

 the Smilacina stellata or star-flowered Solomon's seal. 



