Lake Umbagog.
Outlet Marshes
1896
September 7
(No 3)
they were so very wild that I could not get near them.
Although the day was now clear and warm they avoided
the grass and kept alighting on the open mud where
they would run a few yards & then crouch behind some
inequality in the flat surface.
[margin]Wilson's
Snipe[/margin]
  Four Wood Ducks, the first I have seen for a week or more,
rose from the marsh behind the island, where I put
up my sail to start for camp.
[margin]Wood
Duck[/margin]
  In most places where the water is less than two feet
deep and the bottom sandy or muddy I saw the tracks
of the Great Blue Herons. The huge foot prints, evenly
spaced, suggest the presence of some big, submarine
bird. They are often found one hundred feet or more
out from the shore.
[margin]Tracks of
Ardea hero-
dias[/margin]
  While sailing on the Lake off Pine Point in the
early afternoon I saw a Night-hawk flying south.
Soon after it had passed a Golden Plover appeared
high in air uttering its shrill, squealing whistle. On
coming over the Night-hawk it swooped down at the
latter brushing close past & evidently frightening it badly.
[margin]Night-hawk
& Golden
Plover[/margin]
  Just before sunset I sailed over to the Outlet & waited
there until it was nearly dark. Two Ring-necks & then
Ereunetes alighted near me on a lump of mud. On looking
at them with the glass I saw that one of the Ereunetes
had a comparatively long bill. I accordingly shot it &
found it to be apparently E. occidentalis. * To my regret
the charge also killed the two Ring necks & one E. pusillus.
Snipe & Herons flying about at dusk but no Ducks seen.
[margin]* On comparison with
my series at home I
have decided that this
specimen is an unusually
long-billed E. pusillus[/margin]