1894
Sept. 12
(No 5)
Lake Umbagog, Maine.
appear cutting across the sky and shooting down on set
wings to the flooded marsh where they at once began plashing
in the water and quacking noisily lustily. Thirty or forty came
in during the first half hour but not one gave me a
shot, although the light, silvery whistling of their wings as
they passed behind or high above me kept me constantly
crouching low and craning my neck in different directions.
[margin]Evening flight
of waterfowl
on the Outlet
marshes.[/margin]
Besides the Ducks a great many Wilson's Snipe arrived:
– singly, in twos or threes, and sometimes six or seven together.
They would first appear at a height of 100 or 200 feet
and then pitch down on set wings making a loud
rushing sound exactly similar & quite equal in volume to
that made by the descending Ducks. They "scarped", also,
continually, in deep, hoarse tones different, it seemed to
me, from those used by daylight. Every now and then the
rasping haink of a Great Blue Heron came from the direction
of Leonard's Pond. The squealing cry of Wood Ducks was
almost incessant but I did not see any these birds
although the marsh seemed to be alive with them.
[margin]Gallinago
delicata[/margin]
  It was getting almost too dark to shoot and I was
beginning to think of returning to the boats when against
the sky towards the N.W. I saw a long, dusky line
advancing. It proved to be the big flock of Black Ducks
which I saw last evening. Their approach was really imposing.
There were more than fifty of them and they formed a
line fully 100 yards in length & stretched at right angles
to the line of their flight. Thus they came on all abreast,
the stately birds! As they neared the marsh every wing,
as if at a given signal, ceased its rapid pulsations
and the great birds shot down on a steep incline
making a rushing sound similar and quite equal to
[margin]Anas obscura[/margin]