1891
June
Description of Eel Pond Marshes (No 5)
North Truro, Mass.
  The bird fauna is poor in number of species but
rich in that of individuals. Red-wings breed among
the cat-tails in swarms and with them, many
Crow Blackbirds whose nests are suspended between
the upright stems of the flags only a foot or 
so above the mud, precisely like those of their 
smaller relatives. Carolina Rails and Bitterns
are more numerous than I have ever found
them elsewhere. There are a good many Virginia
Rails, also, and [deleted]perhaps[/deleted] from twelve to twenty
pairs of Florida Gallinules. The Rails and
Bitterns are distributed over the entire marshes,
the Gallinules, as far as we could ascertain,
are confined, or at least breed, only near the
edges of the pond and its connecting creeks.
Besides the species just named we saw a
single adult [male] Ruddy Duck in the pond and
shot a single Least Bittern on the banks of
one of the creeks.
  These are the only species which we found
actually breeding in the flags but Song Sparrows
and Maryland Yellow-throats occurred in places
along their outskirts, [deleted]and[/deleted] Savanna Sparrows & 
Meadow Larks in the bordering meadows of
short grass, Swallows and Swifts skimmed
over the pond freely, Herring Gulls visited it
[deleted][?] pond[/deleted] to drink (?) and bathe and an
Osprey fished there regularly while Spotted
Sandpipers fed on the mud flats and
Least Semipalmated and Bonaparte's Sandpipers
and a Greater Yellow-leg were seen either on or