293
Lake Umbagog.
Cambridge River Marshes.
1897.
Sept. 30
  Cloudless and warm, the entire forenoon dead calm,
a fresh west wind in the afternoon.
  As this was to be my last day at the Lake I
had to spend the entire forenoon superintending the
dismantling of the house boat. It was a shame to
waste so fine a morning in this way but I consoled
myself by the prospects of an equally perfect afternoon
up the Cambridge. Just as we were starting [delete]just[/delete]
however, the wind rose, interfering somewhat with
photography at first but the late afternoon was nearly
or quite calm and the light something remarkable.
[margin]Dismantling
the house
boat[/margin]
  We saw only one Duck - a Hooded Merganser - and
but few small birds. Shortly after sunset, as I was
standing near the school house, talking with Mr. Sherman,
a White-crowned Sparrow chirped excitedly a dozen times
or more in a thicket by the roadside.
  Early in the forenoon a Pigeon Hawk alighted in the
old dam at the foot of the rapids below the mill sitting
erect and motionless save for its head which it moved
continually from side to side & occasionally bobbed up &
down after the manner of an Owl. At length it started
and skimmed off over the river & marsh down into
Stoney Brook Cove where it swooped at a Solitary Sand-
piper. It must have missed its aim for the Sandpiper
after plunging headlong into the water rose high above
the trees & flew off uttering its shrill call incessantly.
I did not actually see the Hawk attack it but that
it did is beyond question.
[margin]Pigeon Hawk[/margin]
  Jim rowed me over to Lakeside after our return from the river trip.