102
Lake Umbagog
Megalloway River
1897
June 2
  Cloudless with raging N.W. wind, the air sparklingly clear
and uncomfortably cold during the earlier hours, the mountains
wholly free from haze.
  Jim has cut a passage through the bushes at the north
side of Leonard's pond near our anchorage and as the banks
at this point are now five or six inches under water we easily
cross the narrow strip of submerged land in our boats
and enter the Megalloway a mile or more above its mouth.
  As we emerged from this channel at about 8 o'clock this
morning we started a pair of of Hooded Mergansers which
had been swimming near the middle of the river, the drake
showing his fine crest distinctly just as he cleared the
water.
[margin]Hooded
Mergansers[/margin]
  We made the first stop at "Parson's landing" where Watrous
found a Kingfisher's nest yesterday. The hole was in a
bank of pure, hard clay about five feet above the river.
It ran in almost perfectly straight but ascending slightly
for a distance of exactly four feet from the face of the
bank to the back of the nest chamber which was nearly
circular in shape with smoothly finished walls and
measured 8 inches in height by 12 inches in diameter the
bottom being slightly hollowed and just 20 inches below
the surface of the ground above. The exterior entrance to the
tunnel measured 4 inches wide by 3Œ_ inches high. Six
perfectly fresh eggs arranged in a circle lay on the base damp
clay in the middle of the chamber. There was absolutely
no trace of a nest - indeed no extraneous material whatever
save one small fish bone.
[margin]Kingfisher
in river
bank[/margin]
  One of the birds was perched on a root within 20 yds of
the nest & flew off, rattling, as we approached. The other