202
*
Lake Umbagog.
[margin]Pine Point[/margin]
1898.
August 31
(No 2)
close together continued rising until they had attained
an elevation of at least 2000 feet. They then started
due south (ie directly down the Lake) flying on an
apparently level plane and in a most curious manner,
alternately flapping and scaling on set wings like a
Gannet or Shearwater. There was, moreover, something connected
with this manner of flight which made the birds look
more than double their usual size. When they were
fully a mile distant I could see them distinctly
with the naked eye and with the glass I followed
them to beyond B. Brook Point, or more than two miles
from the place where I was standing. When I finally 
lost them they were keeping straight on down the
Lake. Just before they passed beyond my vision I
happened to raise the glass slightly when I made
out a cloud of small birds flying over the 
Yellow-rumps at a very much greater elevation and
flapping and scaling in the same manner. The conditions
were unusually favorable for an observation of this
kind the air being very clear and the sky to
the southward of a dead, opaque white against which
the dark little forms showed distinctly. It is
possible, also, that there was some magnifying quality
in the atmosphere at the time.
[margin]* 
Migration[/margin]
  I think my attention was absorbed by watching the two 
Warblers, just mentioned all the others must have left
the Point for good for when I turned & walked
back to the camp the woods were silent & deserted. Later
in the day a few small birds appeared in the birch grove.
At about sunrise I heard an Oven bird sing twice &
afterwards a solitary Vireo & a Red-eye sang a little.