1891
May 31
(No 7)
Mass.
North Truro. - the birds inhabiting the sea of
Cat-tail flags which stretched away into the
mist as far as the eye could reach, giving
one who, like myself, was a stranger to the
place, the impression that they must be miles
in extent.
  That they were tenanted by innumerable Red-wings
and Carolina rails was quickly evidenced by
the cries of these birds which came to our ears
from every side, both far and near. The pumping
of Bitterns was also practically incessant and
every few minutes we saw one of the great
birds rise and flap heavily off over the flags
pursued by the Red-wings. One Bittern was
obliging enough to go through his interesting
performance several times in plain sight of us.
He seemed to be standing on top of some stalk
or perhaps a musk rat house for his entire
body showed above the tallest flags. We could
detect no unusual swelling of the breast.
At rather wide intervals we heard the pig - notes
of a Virginia Rail or the Kup of a Gallinule 
but both these birds were either very silent
or present in much smaller numbers than the
Carolina Rails. Our subsequent experience supports
the latter conclusion.
  Besides the birds just mentioned we saw
a number of Crow Blackbirds flying from place
to place among the flags and two musk rats
swimming across the creek near the boat house.
Two Least Sandpipers & several Spotted do. were also seen.