It was a great relief to escape them by returning 
to the river and pushing out into open water. I took my 
evening lunch off Martha’s Point, floating idly in the canoe 
in midstream. The sun has set and the evening was calm 
and very beautiful. I could hear Red-eyed Vireos, Towhees, 
Song and Swamp Sparrows, Robins, Red-wings, etc. singing 
on every side. Swallows were flying up river in small 
flocks, occasionally descending to the river to drink, dozens 
striking the surface in quick succession. At a distance 
when I could see only the plashes and dimples, the birds 
being invisible against a dark background of woods, it looked 
as if a school of small fishes were sporting and leaping. 
I paddled all the way home, reaching the Buttricks* 
just as the last rosy gleams of sunset were fading in the 
western sky. 
I heard no less than four Quail whistling bob-white 
this afternoon, one near Clamshell Hill, one at the Cliffs, 
one at Martha's Point, and the fourth beyond Conantum. 
At least two of this number could not have been counted 
by me on the 14th. Hence there are at least six birds 
whistling this season between Clamshell and Pantry Brook. 
I have heard none along the Estabrook Road and none this 
month "down river". 
