15 
UPTON, MAINE 
1871 
after the nests were robbed, he did not desert It. 
These floating island sof which there were several in the 
lake are very singular and interesting formations of nature. 
Of a few rods only in extent, they are composed of interlaced 
roots and tussocks, a quaking surface, yielding several inches 
beneath every footstep and occasionally giving way under the 
unwary tread, they are covered with a growth of low blue berry 
bushes and on one we observed two or three larch trees some 
fifteen or twenty feet high: Literally they are floating as 
they rise and fall with the water of the lake, and one even 
broke loose from its mooring and drifted a mile or more. 
( Philohela minor is said to be quite abundant here but we did 
not see it. Gallinago wilsonii is also abundant in the Autumn.) 
( Rhya cophilus solitarius . Saw it near Bethel but did not de¬ 
tect it at the lake.) 
82. Trlngoide s m aculari us. Common. 
83. Anas o bscu ra. Quite common. 
84. Aix sponsa. Very common. 
85. Lophodytes cucul latu s. Quite common. 
86. Laru s ar gentatus . Saw them nearly every day: are said to 
breed abundantly on B. pond. 
This includes only those actually observed, many other of 
course occur frequently at other seasons of the year and in 
peculiar localities. The number of ducks breeding here must be 
very large; indeed a party making a boat excursion up the Cam¬ 
bridge river stated that in one day they saw between one and 
