Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1900.
December.
(7)
If the day was cold and windy comparatively few would appear, and
if a strong wind arose after a large number had assembled 
they would at once begin leaving singly or in small flocks.
But when the weather continued calm and mild most of them
would linger for hours swimming about or sleeping, while two
or three hundred would often remain until late in the after-
noon. Those which stayed late departed all together or in
two or three detachments, and invariably before sunset.
Leaving the water as if at a given signal, one hundred or
more together at the same instant, they would fly straight
down into Cambridge Nook rising steadily but at a slight an-
gle as they advanced. On coming over the land they would
cease flapping and begin soaring in circles mounting higher
and higher and gradually drifting off before the light even-
ing air until lost to sight in the dim distance. It was a
beautiful - nay an imposing sight, that of the return flight
of the cloud of great snow-white birds to their home, the
ocean.
Water fowl
at
Fresh Pond
Herring
Gulls.
  Northern Shrikes have been exceptionally numerous. One
has frequented our garden, two have been seen regularly at
Fresh Pond, two others at lower Mystic Pond, one at Arlington
Heights, one at Waverley and one at the Botanic Garden. There
can be little or no doubt that all these were different birds.
Shrikes
120