directly over the decoys low down. Their yellow bills
gleamed in the sunlight as if gilded.
  My only shooting in this stand was at Herons
of which I killed three, two adult A. caerulea & one
A. egretta. the latter I dropped at ninety two paces.
It fell among thick bushes where I came upon
it suddenly & found it sitting on a stick with
its wings neatly folded & showing only a single
blood spot on the back of the head. I struck
at its neck with the gun barrel but not hard
enough for it immediately rose and I had to
shoot at it again injuring it seriously as a specimen.
I also dropped a Marsh Hawk in the same
bushes but failed to find it. I called it up to
within six yards of me by squeaking. When I
began to squeak it was fully 200 yards away.
Four large flocks of Herons passed me fully 100
birds in each, mostly A. caerulea with a sprinkling
of A. ludoviciana. They fly very like Crows sailing &
circling a good deal. Near my first stand a great
flock of White Ibises passed flapping and soaring
in circles as they passed against a black cloud,
the effect was superb.
  I saw two Water Thrushes distinctly to-day. The
Yellow-legs were gone (I saw only two) but several
great flocks of Peeps passed. The north wind had
driven nearly all the water out of the bay &
the flats were exposed for miles probably scattering the
waders.
  As we were about to start for the vessel a heavy flight
of Scaups began pouring through the gut. I killed the first
three, all long shots, then fired 25 shells in about ten
minutes bringing down only three more all of which were lost. It
was so dark I could not see the gun barrels.