Cambridge, Mass.
1899.
Nov. 30
  Calm and mild thin clouds obscuring the sky and
at times blotting out the sun.
  When I visited Fresh Pond at nine o'clock this morning
I found an imposing array of water-fowl floating on its
glassy surface. They covered, indeed, more than half of the
main part of the pond exclusive of the coves and in places
were crowded closely together. A dense haze and the absence 
of sunlight made it difficult to identify them even with
the aid of a glass and I could not in the cases of the
more distant birds always distinguish between the the [sic] Ducks
and the dark colored young Gulls, much less attempt to 
determine the species of Duck or Gull to which the different 
individuals belonged. But it is [delete]proba[/delete] safe to assume, of course,
that practically all the Ducks are A. [Anas] obscura and the Gulls
L. a. [Larus argentatus] smithsonianus. Of the former there were certainly upwards 
of 150 present. The Gulls seemed to me to be more numerous
than they were yesterday but Walter Deane was able to count
only [blank space] when he visited the pond at 11 A.M. to-day.
[margin]Water fowl
in Fresh Pond[/margin]
  Both Ducks and Gulls were comparatively quiet and inactive
to-day, the former floating motionless like so many wooden decoys,
the latter moving slowly about in a stately, dream-like manner[.]
On the western side of the pond some of the birds were within
100 yards of the shore but elsewhere the outer edges of this
flock or bed were thrice that distance from the land.
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