ORNITHOLOGY. 383 
territory, the reeds were found only in circumscribed patches, separated 
by rather wide intervals. This expanse covering several hundred acres 
almost divides Croton Point into two portions, and undoubtedly at a 
period not very remote was a secondary channel to relieve the Croton 
River of its surfeit during the heavy spring freshets. Even now scarcely 
one hundred feet of sand intervene between the end of one of the creeks 
and the shore of the Hudson beyond. Fishermen and others often take 
advantage of this short cut and drag their boats over the sandy beach, 
thereby saving a long row against rough water and uncertain tides 
On both of the remaining sides of this marsh the land rises abruptly for 
fully fifty feet and protects it almost completely from the high west and 
northwest winds. ‘This wilderness of wavy vegetation with its sluggish 
tide creeks is always fascinating, but doubly so in the long June twi- 
lights, when all animate nature seems awake and moving. At such 
times few sounds penetrate from the outside—the occasional oar stroke 
of a belated fisherman, the whistle of a distant locomotive, the rumbling 
revolutions of a passing steamboat,—these, together with the twinkling 
lights on the far off hills, added to rather than diminished the supreme 
solitude. Tothe writer, one of the greatest attractionsto the place was 
the varied and perplexing sounds which arose from all sides as if to 
welcome the departing day. As he drifted noiselessly on the flood tide 
along the winding creeks many were the notes that reached his ear, 
some familiar, others identified after more or less patient watching, and 
a few that ever remained unsolved. . 
On all these evening excursions swallows were heard or seen until after 
dark, but never were suspected of roosting until discovered by accident. 
The evening of June 7, 1884, was uneventful, no new sound of bird or 
beast was heard, and as the darkening shadows were made more intense 
by the rising moon, the bow of the little skiff was turned reluctantly 
toward the open waters of the cove. The ebb tide had already set in 
and a few pushes of the scull oar sent the boat rapidly forward down 
one of the narrow waterways. At an angle in the stream the prow 
grated harshly against the stems of a patch of reeds, making a rustling 
sound which was immediately echoed by the voice of swallows. 
The writer grasped one of the bunches of outlying reeds and swung 
the boat in closer tothe mass. From this position he could hear the 
low twittering of what was evidently a large colony of swallows. Some 
were close at hand while others were farther removed in the 
dark recesses of the luxuriant vegetation. After listening for a few 
moments, and identifying the notes of the barn and sand swallows, the 
sounds gradually ceased as if the birds had fallen into a quiet sleep. 
When everything became still he struck the water with the flat blade of 
the oar, In an instant all was excitement and every bird seemed to 
