Penobscot Bay, Maine.
1896
July 15
(No 2)
  This marsh lies, I believe, about on the border line between
Sedgewick & Blue Hill. I found in it to-day a multitude
of Savanna Sparrows (most of these young in first plumage),
considerable numbers of Song and Swamp Sparrows, a
few Maryland Yellow-throats and one Red-winged Blackbird.
The lagoons with their luxuriant aquatic vegetation and
rank marginal growths of tall grasses & bushes formed ideal haunts
for the smaller Rails & it wood [sic] be indeed strange if
Porsana carolina & Rallus virginianus do not breed there
in some numbers but I failed to obtain any evidence
of the presence of either species. Bobolinks, too, should [delete]occur[/delete]
inhabit the broad, rich mowing fields which slope gently
down to the marsh on the northern side but we neither
saw nor heard them & our driver said that they occur
only during migration & then in but small numbers.
The scarcity of Red-wings was difficult to understand for
there was room enough along the brook for scores of
them. The single bird observed was a male singing listlessly.
Hundreds of Swallows were skimming low over the
marsh, Eave Swallows being the most numerous [delete]ly represented[/delete],
Barn Swallows next in numbers, and White-bellies
represented by less than half-a-dozen birds. Broods
of young Barn Swallows, fresh from the nests, were
scattered all along the brook perched (the members of 
each brood together) in bushes only a foot or two
above the water.