I have never been at Lake Umbagog early enough in spring to 
see G-ooseanders engaged in courtship there but on March 16th 1909. 1 
hatched a number of them devoting themselves to it in Fresh Pond,- 
Cambridge, Massachusetts. This experience i3 described in my journal 
is follows;- 
H. A. Purdie and I visited Fresh Pond this morning reaching 
i 
It about nine o 1 clockjand finding it partly open partly skimmed over witK 
thin ice that formed last night* Thirty one G-ooseanders were swimming 
in a large space of clear water on the western dide of the pond* Nine¬ 
teen were drakes in full plumage and twelve females or young males (not 
r 
to be certainly distinguished from the females even in spring)* For 
k 
i;he first half hour or so most of the drakes were constantly courting 
UrC 
the females* Unfortunately l—was at this time on Hemlock Point and the 
birds fully half-a-mile away. But on the calm water and in the clear 
morning light they could be seen veS fy distinctly through my strong glass 
and I do not think 1 was in any respect deceived as to what they did 
gLlthough their apparent silence may have been due to the fact that I wa£> 
. 
too far from tham to hear the notes they may have uttered* Their be¬ 
haviour was in some respects not unlike that <bf the Whistler drakes 
which I watched on February 27th* In number varying from three or four 
