0 HARVARD UNIVERSITY Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology BULLETIN OF THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY 7 AT HARVARD COLLEGE, IN CAMBRIDGE VOL. LXVI CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A. 1938 FEB 1 2 1938 t-j, t^A The Cosmos Press. Inc. Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. CONTEXTS No. 1. — The Birds of the Lake Umbagog Region of Maine Part I. By William Brewster. June, 1924 No. 2. — The Birds of the Lake Umbagog Region of Maine Part IL By William Brewster. Februarj', 1925 No. 3. — The Birds of the Lake Umbagog Region of Maine Part TIL By William Brewster. November, 1937 No. 4. — The Birds of the Lake Umbagog Region of Maine Part IV. By Ludlow Griscom. Februarj', 1938 page 211 403 523 Ls. Lq X Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zc'ilo?y AT HARVARD COLL EOF. Vol. LXVT. Part I. THE BIRDS OF THE LAKE UMBAGOG REGION OF MAINE. By William Brewster. CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A.: PRINTED FOR THE MUSEUM. June, 1924. Reports on thjT; I^ojnxific Results of the Expedition to the East- ern Teopical P^\cific, in charge of Alexander Agassiz, by the tjj fe.,i)^^JCoMWLli6N^ Steamer "Albatross," from October, 190^?, TO ]\1aECH^ W^pf LlEUTEN.VNT CoMMANDER L. M. GaRRETT, U. S. N., Commanding, in preparation: — R. p. BIGELOW. The Stomatopods. G. W. MULLER. The Ostracods. O.CARLGREN. The Actinaria. MARY J. RATHBUN. The Crustacea W. R. COE. The Nemerteans. Decapoda. H. J. HANSEN. The Cirripeds. G. O. SARS. The Copepods. W. E. HOYLE. The Cephalopods. I H. R. SIMROTH. Pteropods, Heteropcls. P. KRUMBACH. The Sagittae. TH. STUDER. The Alcyonaria. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology AT HARVARD COLLEGE. Vol. LXVI. Part I. THE BIRDS OF THE LAKE UMBAGOG REGION OF MAINE. By William Brewster. CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A.: PRINTED FOR THE MUSEUM. June, 1924. The Bir(h of the Lake Umhagog Region of Maine. By William Brewster. CONTENTS. Preface . Introductioji . Bethel to Upton Upton to Errol Lake Umbagog Stub-Forests Pine Point Tyler Bog Great Island Floating Island Collecting . Faunal Relations Migration . Annotated List Colyinbus grisigena holboelli (Reinhardt). auritus Linne. Horned Grebe Podilymbus podiceps (Linne). Pied-billed Gavia immer immer (Briinnich). Loon stellata (Pontoppidan). Red-throated Loon Uria lomvia lomvia (Linne). Briinnich's Murre Larus argentatus argentatus Pontoppidan. Herring delawarensis Ord. Ring-billed Gull Philadelphia (Ord). Bonaparte's Gull Sterna hirundo Linne. Common Tern paradisaea Briinnich. Arctic Tern . Chlidonias nigra surinamensis (Gmelin). Black Tern Mergus merganser americanus Cassin. Goosander serrator Linne. Red-breasted Mergan.ser Lophodytes cucullatus (Linne). Hooded Merganser Anas boschas boschas Linne. Mallard rubripes rubripes Brewster. Red-legged Black tristis Brewster. Black Duck Mareca penelope (Linne). European Wigeon . americana (Gmelin). Baldpate Nettion carolinense (Gmelin). CJreen-winged Teal HolboeU's Grebe Grebe Gull Duck PAGE 5 6 7 8 9 17 19 24 25 25 26 28 29 33 33 37 41 43 53 54 55 60 61 62 64 66 67 80 82 91 92 93 113 114 117 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. PAGE Querquedula discors (Linne). Blue-winged Teal . . . . 118 Spatula clypeata (Linne). Shoveller ...... 123 Dafila acuta tzitzihoa (Vieillot). Pintail ...... 124 Lampronessa sponsa (Linne). Wood Duck 125 Nyroca americana (Eyton). Redhead 136 marila nearctica (Stejneger). Scaup Duck .... 137 affinis (Eyton). Lesser Scaup Duck . . . . .139 collaris (Donovan). Ring-necked Duck .... 140 Bucephala clangula americana (Bonaparte). Golden-eye . . . 142 albeola (Linne). Buffle-head ...... 163 Clangula hyemalis (Linne). Old Squaw ...... 167 Oidemia nigra americana Swainson. American Scoter . . . 169 grisea deglandi Bonaparte. White-winged Scoter . . 180 perspicillata (Linne). Surf Scoter 182 Oxyura jamaicensis (Gmelin). Ruddy Duck 184 Chen hyperboreus hyperboreus (Pallas). Lesser Snow Goose . . 185 caerulescens (Linne). Blue Goose ...... 186 Branta canadensis canadensis (Linne). Canada Goose . . .187 Botaurus lentiginosus (Montagu). Bittern ..... 190 Ardea herodias herodias Linne. Great Blue Heron .... 194 Casmerodius albas egretta (Gmelin). Egret ..... 203 Butorides virescens virescens (Linne). Green Heron . . . 203 Nycticorax nycticorax naevius (Boddaert). Black-crowned Night Heron 204 Rallus virginianus Linne. Virginia Rail 205 Porzana Carolina (Linne). Carolina Rail 206 Fulica americana americana Gmelin. Coot 209 BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. PREFACH The attention of ornithologists seems to have first been called to the Umbagog Region by Edward A. Samuels. After visiting it in the earl\- (iOs he mentions it not infrequently in his Birds of New England, published in 1867. Unfortunately he acquired only trifling and superficial knowledge of its varied and abundant bird-life, resulting, it would seem, merely from casual observation of such conspicuous birds as happened to be noticed during camping trips, undertaken chiefly for shooting wild-fowl and catching Trout. What he had to say of it in his book sufficed, however, to lead Harry B. Bailey to infer, a few years later, that the region might repay further and more careful investigation. Acting on this impression Mr. Bailey went in May, 1870, to I'pton where, shortly afterward, he was joined at the Lake House by Ruthven Deane. When these two enterprising yoimg col- lectors returned from this trip, it was with spoils w^hich excited no little M^onder and admiration among friends possessing kindred tastes and living for the most part, in or near Cambridge — then a head-centre of ornithological zeal and activity. For the specimens included skins of birds represented in but few private collections of that period, and sets of eggs of exceeding rarity or interest. After it had thus been made know n that treasures so priceless might be obtained by journey- ing no further than to Lake LTmbagog, various collectors sought them there almost ceaselessly in the spring or early summer of many a subse- quent year, usually staying at the Lake House and limiting their field- operations chiefly to its immediate neighborhood, although all-day excursions were occasionally made to the northern end of the Lake, or up Cambridge Ri\er, or perhaps up the Magalloway as far as the Lower Settlement. Such expeditions increased in frequency and extent of range as the country in and about Upton became more and more thoroughly ransacked; but because of the exceeding difficulty and discomfort of skinning birds and blowing eggs in forest depths infested by myriads of mosquitoes, midges, and black-flies, even the briefest camping trips were seldom undertaken except in late summer or early autinnn, when these grievous pests were no longer to be feared. The ever-varying character and scope of this long-continued and, at the first, essentially pioneer, field-work, the respective parts taken in it by so many widely-known collectors, and the extent to which it absorbed my own attention for a considerable number of years, may b bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. best be shown, perhaps, by narrating, as briefly as possible, some of my personal experience with it. The text relates, unless otherwise stated, exclusively to a period beginning with May, 1871 and terminating with June, 1909. This should be borne in mind to prevent misconception of such temporal expressions as "now," "at the present time," "during earlier years" etc. ; for almost all these refer only to the general interval of time just indicated. INTRODUCTION. The southernmost and westernmost of the Rangele;^' Lakes is un- known to have ever borne any name other than the pleasing Indian one, Umbagog. It lies partly in western Maine, still more largely in northeastern New Hampshire, upwards of thirty miles to the north- ward of Mt. Washington, and some sixteen hundred feet above sea- level at Portland, Maine — distant about one hundred and fifty miles in an air-line to the southeast. Mountainous country, covered for the most part with unbroken and pathless forest, surrounds it closely on every side, while the nearest railway is almost thirty miles away. Being thus comparatively isolated it has been little troubled by pleasure-seeking and comfort -loving tourists — or at least was not before these days of ever-multiplying automobiles. The Umbagog Region of my book includes several hundred square miles of this hinter land, whose boundaries are too ill-defined by nature or imperfectly known to me to be very precisely stated. In general terms it may be said to stretch southward from the Lake to Grafton Notch; eastward to C Pond and the Narrows of Richardson Lake; northward along the Magalloway River Valley to Aziscohos Falls and beyond; westward to Dixville Notch. These arbitrary limits have been adopted chiefly because they circumscribe woods and waters with which ornithologists are more or less familiar. There is, indeed, no reason to suppose that what has thus been set apart can differ essentially as regards either physical or faunal characteristics from much of the remoter or less accessible forest country surrounding it on almost every side. In Grafton Notch, however, there is an obvious and abrupt line of demarcation between two unlike faunal regions, that immediately to the north of this mountain-pass being everywhere pure Canadian, whereas that to the south partakes some- what of Transitional characteristics. Elsewhere, no such coincidence of natural with arbitrarv boundaries has been traced. BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. Bdhd to Upton. The stage-road from Bethel to l^pton — \)y means of which one may most quickly and easily reach Lake I^mhagog from the southward — is nearly thirty miles in length. It runs for the greater part of the way through open, farming country, down the left hank of the An- droscoggin River. After passing Newry it takes advantage of the comparatively gradual and easy ascent to Grafton Notch afforded by the valley of Bear Ri\'er, which it follows quite to its source. The farms in this valley are not \ery productive, hut they include some fertile intervales which \'ield good crops of hay. For the next three miles the road runs nearly straight through unbroken and essentially primitive forest, abounding in fine old beeches, rock maples, red maples, and yellow birches, but long since despoiled of its larger spruces and balsams. On the left Speckled Moimtain rises to an ele\'ation above sea-level of 4,250 feet, on the right Saddleback to some 4,080 feet. Soon after passing the source of Bear Ri\'er in the upper part of Grafton Notch the stage-road comes to another water-shed which slopes northward and is drained by the Swift Cambridge, at first a tiny rivulet, next a broad laughing brook flowing over gravelly shal- lows, and finally a small river which, after mingling its clear, glancing waters with the more turbid and sluggish ones of the Dead Cambridge, empties into Lake Umbagog. For a distance of several miles from the headwaters of this little stream its course is closely followed by the road over an open and nearly level plateau. Beyond this flat the road leaves the River on its right and enters a broken, partly-wooded tract, ascends a succession of steep hills, approaching Upton along a stretch of straight and level road. Here it divides, the right hand fork de- scending a steep hill to the old Lake House where it terminates, the other branch inclining to the westward and leading to Lakeside and to Errol. Umbagog as seen from Upton Hill looks more like a broad and winding river than a lake, for its greatest width is but little more than a mile, and its total length upwards of twelve miles, while it stretches towards every point of the compass. It is immediately bordered for the most part by low or only slightly-elevated land, which extends back for distances varying from a few hundred yards to a mile or more, before gi^'ing place to the hills and mountains that rise in ever\' direc- tion, tier above tier, as far as the eye can reach. In a few places, however, outlying spurs or ridges slope steeply down to the very edge of the water. Evervwhere, save at the southern extremity of the 8 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. Lake and just below the Narrows, where there are scattered farms, the shores are clothed in heavy forest which flows backward and upward in billowy waves of verdure over all the neighboring hills and mountains. From Upton Hill this forest seems unbroken and of boundless extent as, indeed, it well may, for it covers hundreds of square miles where the only open spaces are those formed by lakes or rivers, and it stretches northward, practically without interruption, save by these and similarly natural openings, to the borders of Canada and beyond, a distance of more than fifty miles. It forms a rich and appropriate setting for the shining Lake. Upton to Errol. The road leading from Upton to Errol first descends a long hill, from which most of the wider reaches and larger coves of Umbagog may be clearly traced. At the foot of the hill it crosses the state-line into Cambridge, New Hampshire, where it draws nearer and nearer to the Lake, and finally skirts its shores rather closely, affording several wide and impressive views of its south arm, and many attractive glimpses of blue water seen between or just above the intervening trees. Be- fore the end of July, the road is broadly belted on either hand by flowering herbaceous plants more or less common, it is true, to the surrounding region, and perhaps even to the greater part of New England, but here found in rather unusual numbers and perfection and most effectively shown. Vistas bordered by brilliantly-coloured flowers are always attractive and when, as here, there are inner ranks of vigorous shrubs and trees to form a solid background of blended foliage, largely evergreen, the eft'ect is doubly charming. Something like it is often attempted by the makers of cultivated parks and gardens, but their handiwork is too apt to bear the marks of conscious effort, and in this and other ways it usually falls short of the success which Nature achieves so easily in dealing with many waste or neg- lected places. The prevailing colours of the roadside flowers in July are white and pinks or reds of various shades; l)ut from the middle of August to the close of September, when the golden-rods and asters are in fullest bloom, yellow and purple or bluish purple are the predominating hues. At the latter season the roadsides are more brilliantly coloured than at any other, especially if, as often happens, the foliage of the maples, birches, and other deciduous trees reaches the height of its autumnal HKEUSTKH: HIKDS OK LAKE UMBAGOG. 9 plory before the wild flowers are cut down and Ijlaekened by the first kiUing frosts. But almost no part of northern New Enf^land, however rugfjed and remote, is now beyond reach of the swift touring-ears. Of late they have traversed the Errol road with increasing fre(|uency, powdering its wayside flowers with dust, disturbing the quiet of its wooded reaches with the muffled roar of their throbbing machiner;s-, and lea\ing everywhere the reek of their fetid breath. Perhaps the day is not far distant ^ when they will ha\"e replaced — at least in summer — the time-honored stages, the picturescjue "tote-teams" and, indeed, most of the \ehicles now drawn by horses. To many of us who ha\e long known the region and loved it especially because of its remoteness and seclusion, this invasion of its highways is scarcely less deplorable than is the ever-increasing havoc wrought in its forests by the lumbermen. Lak( i'mhngog. Some lakes impress one as dominating their immediate surround- ings, others as dominated by these. Umbagog belongs in the latter class. It is too narrow, tortuous, sliallow, and muddy to be in itself especially admiral)le, yet like many a precious stone, has beauty and charm due to the effectiveness of its perfect setting amid the majestic mountains and \irgin forests that surround it closely on e\'ery hand. In some respects it is not unlike a sluggish, gently-curving river, here expanded, there contracted. North and south, east and west, it stretches, trending, indeed, towards every point of the compass, as it winds about among encircling hills and ridges, following everywhere what must haive been lines of least resistance. Although twelve miles in length, it is nowhere much more than a mile in width, and there are places where the opposite shores approach one another to within less than a quarter of a mile. The coves which indent them are almost innumerable and of varying shapes and sizes. Some have but a feAV acres of open water, perhaps concealed behind wooded points or islands and connected with the Lake by devious passages, easily over- looked. Others are broad bays, rivalling in extent the central reaches through which steamer-channels run, and are often mistaken for these by persons unfamiliar with the region. It is chiefly to the number and character of such coves and ba\s that Uml)agog owes its claim to be regarded as a lake. Besides enhancing its general interest and at- 1 Written in 1907. 10 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. tractiveness, the\- add rather surprisingly to its shore-line which is said to exceed seventy miles in total length. This may he an exaggera- tion of the truth, but assuredly there are few if any canoemen, however strong and enduring, who would undertake to paddle around the entire Lake in the course of a single day, keeping everywhere close to the margin of the water. Excepting at high stages of water, few of the coves are navigable for. steam- or motor-boats, and many lesser or inconspicuous ones remain at all times seldom visited, save occasionally by Duck-hunters, Musk- rat-trappers, and Pickerel -fishermen. Partly for this reason, also because of the wild and picturesque character of their environment, they impress one with a sense of seclusion and remoteness, very soothing to tired human nerves, being less disturbed than central reaches of the Lake that are more frequented by large birds and mammals. Eagles and Ospreys are wont to hover over them, looking for fish; Ducks and Herons to swim or wade in their reedy shallows. Foxes come at morning and evening to trot along their grassy margins, searching for Meadow Mice, and Deer \^isit them by night to feed on the roots of yellow water-lilies which flourish where\'er the bottom is soft and muddy. There are, indeed, almost no furred or feathered creatures living or roaming anywhere near the Lake which may not be seen at the right hour and season in one or another of its coves. When the first days of early spring are magicall\' transforming the woods and fields of Massachusetts, little or no ob\'ious change from mid- winter conditions is taking place in the region about Lake I'mbagog, for in March the snow is sure to lie deeper there, and the cold is likely to be intenser, than at any other time of year. Even at the very close of April there may be practically no bare ground showing, and the Lake itself often remains encased in ice until after the first of May, and sometimes as late as the fifteenth. In April, both snow and ice freeze hard at night, but soften and waste under the fervent rays of the mid-day sun, and leads of open water, frequented by Muskrats and by the earlier-arri\ing Ducks, appear here and there along the margin of sunny shores and coves, perhaps before the heavily-loaded " tote- teams" ha\'e ceased to cross the thick ice that still covers most of the Lake. The first bird harbingers of spring are the Crows, which are likely to arrive about the middle of March and to be followed, a little later, by Robins, Bluebirds, two or three kinds of Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, a few Fox Sparrows, and several kinds of water-fowl. These and other signs of approaching siunmer are not sufficiently marked or impressive, however, to prepare one for the final trans- BREWSTER: BII^DS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. 11 formation scene wliicli, when it comes, early in May, is apt to he astonishingly sudden and complete. Often in the course of a few- oppressively warm da\s, usually accompanied h\' strong southerly winds, the entire Lake opens and all the snow, save that in the deepest drifts and in the denser shade of exergreen forests, speedily vanishes, while many of the deciduous trees and shrubs begin to show a tinge of green foliage, and hosts of migratory birds of many different species arrixe all together from the south. Thus the long, lingering spring of southern New England is commonly replaced here by a season so very brief that it represents but little more than an al)rupt leap from late winter into earlv summer. It rarelv begins earlier than the oth, or later than the 15th, of May, and sometimes it is practically over by the 25th of that month, although ordinarily the woods are not in full leaf nor all the birds back in their summer haunts, much before the 1st of June. My spring visits to the Lake have often included the latter part and sometimes almost the whole, of the interesting season just mentioned. Many passages relating to it occur in my journal ; as some of these will perhaps give a better understanding of it, I shall venture to draw from them rather freely as follows : — 1876. — I find the season remarkably backward, not a leaf having started as yet, while there is still a good deal of snow in the woods, especially in hollows and cedar-swamps. Despite these conditions, nearly all the birds seem to have arrived. I saw to-day (26 May) Cape May, Black and Yellow, Black- throated Green, Blackburnian, Yellow-rumped, and Wilson's Black-capped Warblers, besides several other species. Most of them were silent, although a few sang a little. A decided change in the weather, the day (27 May) being very warm with west wind. There was an appreciable increase in the number of birds, both in species and individuals, and nearly all sang freely. Tennessee Warblers and Scarlet Tanagers were seen for the first time. A second warm day (28 May), the vegetation continuing to advance rapidly. Numbers of birds arrived, among others the Black-poll, Chestnut-sided and Blackburnian Warblers, the Red-eyed Vireo, the Purple Martin, the Cedar Waxwing and the Whippoorwill, the Olive-backed and Hermit Thrushes. It rained heavily last night. The forenoon to-day (29 May) was cloudy and sultry, the afternoon clear and cool. Noted a further increase in the number of birds, and the evident fact that most of them are now settling themselves for the breeding season. The Blackburnian Warblers have retired to the tree-tops and each male keeps to his own domain and defends it against all invaders. The Philadelphia Vireo, Mourning Warbler, and Solitary Sandpiper were seen for the first time. There was a general arrival of Cedar- birds, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Bay-breasted Warblers, Yellow-bellied Fly- 12 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. catchers and Olive-sided Flycatchers. The foliage of the birches has become quite dense. A sudden change in the weather, the night clear and almost frosty. Early in the morning (30 May) the woods were silent, but as the sun rose higher and the day became warmer many birds began to be seen and heard. Most of the Warblers were collected in flocks in warm sunny nooks. Clear and cold with north Avind. The woods are now (31 May) in full leaf. Most of the Warblers are now building their nests. 1879. — A warm day (25 May), cloudy and damp for the most part, with occasional gleams of sunshine and desultory showers. There was a well- marked wave of migration, and the woods resounded all day with the songs of birds of various kinds. A cloudless day (26 May), but a very wild one for May, the air piercingly cold and a furious gale blowing from the northwest, swaying the slender trees, roaring through the evergreen forests, and tearing up the surface of the Lake. The Warblers were in flocks all day, in sheltered places under the lee of the woods, and on sunny hillsides. In a small fir I saw five male Blackburnians together, three of them on one branch, their orange throats glowing like coals among the dark foliage. A few dejected Hummingbirds were sitting in the sun among dead twigs and fallen tree-tops. Although the day (27 May) was clear and rather warm, the Warblers were still in flocks keeping near the ground, in sheltered places. In a single fallen tree-top I counted fifteen, among them three male Blackburnians. 1880. — The woods and thickets about the Lake are (16 May) nearly as bare as in winter. Nevertheless I came upon a large flock of birds in a sheltered swamp. It contained numbers of Blackburnian, Black and Yellow, Bay- breasted, Chestnut-sided, and Black-throated Green Warblers, a Swainson's and a Wilson's Thrush, a Solitary Vireo, a Parula Warbler, a few Ruby- crowned Kinglets. ' The Warblers continue (19 May) to keep in flocks compo.sed of various species, and averaging about twenty members each. 1881. — Most of the .summer birds were in full song (12 May). I heard dozens of Swainson's Thrushes, a Black and Yellow Warbler, and numbers of Blackburnians, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Green, and Parula Warblers, northern Water Thrushes, Redstarts, Winter Wrens, and Yellow-bellied Wood- peckers. Morning (13 May) cloudy with light rain; afternoon clear. Birds abun- dant and singing freely. The only new ones noted were Least and Great- crested Flycatchers. Clear and cool with northwest wind. To my list of birds I added to-day (14 May) the Black-throated Blue Warbler, the Olive-sided Flycatcher, (of which I heard no less than five representatives), and the Nighthawk. 1897. — Only about two weeks ago the temperature at Lakeside fell one night to zero Fahrenheit, I am told. In the course of a rather long walk this evening (11 May), I heard many of the earlier-arriving birds, such as Robins, BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. 13 Hermit Thrushes, White-throated Sparrows, and Woodcock, but only one of the later ones, namely a Whippoorwill. Early morning (12 May) calm and slightly foggy. Remainder of the day cloudy and rainy with east wind. I'he only Warblers met with during a short walk which I took just after breakfast, were an Usnea, two Black and Yellows, and a few Yellow-rimips. In the afternoon, however, the woods were fairly alive with them; on the shore of the Lake near the old Lake House, they began appearing about two o'clock, and afterwards were e.xceedingly nvmierous in thickets bordering on the water. I wonder if this is the same flight that we left at Bethel yesterday and why so few of its members reached the Lake before noon to-day; also, if the hordes which appeared in the afternoon came all the way from Bethel by daylight or only from some of the high ridges lying a mile or two to the southward of the Lake, where they may have alighted early this morning. Heavy rain-storm lasting all day (13 May). The woods continue to swarm with Warblers and other small migrants. Clear and warm. The woods bordering the south shore of the Lake were filled (14 May) with birds scattered about singly and also in small mixed flocks. Among them are great numbers of Blackburnian Warblers. The Veery, Wilson's Blackcap Warbler, and the Olive-sided Flycatcher were noted for the first time this year. Apparently the great flight of Warblers which reached the Lake on the 12th, has become dispensed through the neighboring forest or has passed on north- ward, while no succeeding bird-wave of any magnitude has since arrived here. At least, small birds appeared to be very scarce about the Lake to-day (17 May), although the weather was perfect. Apparently the second great bird-wave of the season arrived last night or early this morning (20 May), for there were very many small birds everywhere in the woods to-day. Among them I noted the Cape May, the Bay-breasted, the Black-throated Blue, and the Canadian Warblers. The forest was literally swarming with birds to-da,y (21 May), especially near the shores of the Lake. The Black-poll Warbler, the Scarlet Tanager, and the Red-eyed Vireo were noted for the first time this year. 1909. — I have never known the season to be so backward at this date (2 June). The ice went out of Lake Umbagog on May 14th. The country, everywhere, from Bethel to the Lake was alive with birds. They were much more numerous than they ever are in summer. Warblers were particularly numerous. Although winter sets in rather early at Lake Umbagog, its oncoming is less abrupt and better heralded than that of summer. For there is always a well-defined, and sometimes a rather protracted, autunm — most deliglitful of all seasons here as well as elsewhere. Just w hen this begins or ends would be difficult to determine, for it is throughout a season of transition highly variable, moreover, with respect to its 14 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. duration in different years. Signs of its presence or at least of its near approach, are not wanting before the end of August, but typical summer weather — calm, serene, and often uncomfortably warm — usually continues well into September and sometimes quite to its close, while I have known the first killing frosts to be delayed until the 20th of October, although ordinarily they come at least a week or two earlier than that and occasionally not long after the middle of Sep- tember. During the very first week of the latter month a few of the maples growing in low, wet land about the shores of the Lake are likely to turn scarlet, and there may be yellowing birches, also, in some of the dry hillside pastures. But the forest that covers most of the upland country with a billowy sea of foliage seldom displays much brilliant color before the loth of September, and occasionally remains as uniformly green as it was in mid-summer up to the 20th or even the 25th. The general change usually begins before the latter date, how- ever, and it often proceeds very rapidly. The autumn colouring is ordinarily most \'ivid and widespread sometime between September 25th and October 5th. After it has reached its height, it rarely lasts more than two or three days, unless the weather remains calm and fine, for the fully-ripened leaves are easily detached by wind or rain. Most of them fall before October 10th and by the 15th, at the latest, the deciduous forests are almost perfectly bare. After the " fall of the leaf," the mowing fields about the southern end of the Lake may remain green and smiling for weeks in succession, with hawkweed and red clover still in bloom and black crickets creak- ing among the grass whenever the sun shines brightly. The Lake, too, may continue to look nmch as it does in summer, at least when not ruffled by strong winds. But the forest presents a radically changed and rather grim aspect, with the "pointed firs" and spruces standing erect and still like sentinels on watch among the deciduous trees which, stripped of every last remnant of verdure, reveal details of outline and structure hitherto concealed or obscured. Snow does not often, if ever, come to stay before November, but it occasionally whitens the ground in September, and sometimes covers it to a considerable depth for brief periods in October. Late in October the temperature is likely to fall, every now and then, to 25° or perhaps 20° Fahrenheit at night, and occasionally it may drop to 10° or even 8° before the 25th of the month, freezing the surface of the ground as hard as a flint and covering the shallow coves of the Lake with ice an inch or more in thickness; yet the days fol- lowing even such exceptionally cold nights are often delightfully warm. BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. 15 The Lake is rarely troubled by ^ogs in spring and summer, but they are distressingly frequent and persistent in autumn, especially during the latter part of September and the first half of October, when they occur with almost unfailing regularity whenever clear, calm, frosty nights succeed bright, rather warm days. Most forest-haunting creatures are noticeably depressed by fogs. I suspect that the smaller woodland birds sometimes remain asleep or at least inactive on their perches during their continuance, for at Pine Point I have repeatedly looked and listened for them in vain, until the fog began to disperse when they would appear suddenly and in large numbers, close about our camp. It is possible, of course, that they may have been astir much earlier than this further l)ack in the forest, but whenever I traversed it on very foggy autumn mornings I found it everywhere silent and apparently deserted. Moreover, the birds seen on these occasions on the Point acted at first as if they had not been long awake and were only just beginning to seek their breakfasts. When there was no morning fog or when it was but thin or transitory, they were always to l)e seen or heard about camp soon after daybreak. Many of them spent the night there, for the woods on the Point not only attracted them by day, but also provided them with safe and con- genial sleeping quarters. What I have just said is intended to apply chiefly to such forest- loving birds as are locally resident about the Lake, at least in early autumn. Many of these, as Chickadees, Nuthatches, Golden-crested Kinglets, Brown Creepers, Winter Wrens, and Woodpeckers of several species, were accustomed to frequent Pine Point in September, roam- ing the woods in flocks which usually contained migrating Warblers of several species. The W^arblers varied greatly in numbers from day to day, for they were continually arriving from the northward and departing to the southward. They travelled, of course, chiefly by night, when one might hear them passing overhead, hour after hour, in seemingly unbroken procession. By listening attentively to their calls whenever I happened to be awake, I came at length to the con- clusion that they seldom if ever alighted except about daybreak, when dozens or even scores of them often pitched down into the woods on the Point in quick succession. This I dimly saw on a few occasions, but ordinaril\- the chirping of the birds as they shot down from the aerial pathway which they had followed was the only evidence vouch- safed me of their descent. If the morning dawned clear, they were sure to come about our camp by sunrise or a little later. If they found the woods enveloped in fog, they sometimes imitated the ex- 16 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. ample of the Titmice, Nuthatches, etc., by remaining- silent and unseen until the sun appeared, but as a rule the presence of fog seemed to inspire them with exceeding energy and restlessness, which they mani- fested by darting to and fro through the tree-tops, chirping excitedly and rarely pausing anywhere to rest or feed. After behaving in this manner for fifteen or twenty minutes, they were likely to leave the Point altogether and to troop off southward over the Lake in loose straggling order, probably taking advantage of the cover afforded by the fog to add a few more miles to the journey accomplished during the preceding night. For many of these migrants the Lake is a veritable death-trap during foggy mornings in autumn. Rarely have I crossed it any- where at this season, just after the fog had cleared and before the wind had risen, without finding one or more dead birds floating on its surface. Evidently one and all of them had perished by drowning, but why, I kept asking myself, should sound, vigorous birds of any kind fall into the Lake and l)e unable to extricate themselves again, when the weather was comparatively warm and perfectly calm. Obviously the fog had something to do with it, for they were ne\'er found in the water on mornings which had been clear at daybreak. This led me to believe for a time that they must get lost in the fog and fly about in circles, until they become exhausted and drop into the water. But after I had repeatedly seen or heard them crossing the widest stretches of the Lake through thick fog, keeping, apparently, to an almost perfectly-straight southward course, I had to abandon this theory. A much more satisfactory explanation was finally suggested by an experience which I had at Pine Point early one foggy but cloudless morning in September. As I was descending a slope from our camp to the shore of the Lake, soon after daybreak, it struck me that if I had not known that a broad sheet of water lay just before and below me I might have supposed that I was looking oft" over a great abyss filled with billowy fog. Even when I reached the shore and halted at its very edge I realized that I could not have made sure by the evi- dence of my eyes alone that they rested on anything more tangible than swirling wreaths of mist. This at least was the case as long as the water remained undisturbed, but the merest dimples on its surface made by rising minnows or by the gyrating gambols of " lucky-l)ugs " were plainly visil)le, sometimes at consideral)le distances. For the mist wreaths were too diaphanous and interrupted to really intercept one's view of anything immediately beyond or under them. But in the soft, diffused light of early dawn their colouring was nearly the same BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. 17 as that of the water, and they were so perfectly reflected in its glassy surface that as I hent forward and fjazed down intently, I seemed to see them slowly drifting and eddying far l)eneath me. Indeed it was only hy lowering my face to within a foot or two of the water that I could make it out distinctly. Nor were the conditions exceptional on this occasion, for I found that they were likely to he duplicated ai)Out the same hoin* on any foggy morning. If I went well out iuto the Lake and allowed my canoe to lie motionless until the ripples made hy it had sul)sided, it was not difficult to imagine myself floating not on water but in space, with oceans of fog beneath, as well as around and above me. When I dwelt on this thought, it soon became so nearly conviction as to be positively disturbing. That small, migrating birds descending at the end of a nocturnal journey through thick fog to the surface of the Lake must be subject to a similar delusion seems almost certain. They are looking, of course, for woods, or thickets, or open fields, all of which, as they know by experience, may be seen through the densest fog at a distance of fully twenty yards. But with fog-banks overlying wide stretches of perfectly-calm water they are not likely to ever ha^'e more than a single experience, and that a fatal one, for it is improbable that they can notice the water in time to avoid coming in sudden contact with its surface. That thev usually strike it with such force as to be not only completely immersed but also so stunned that they can make little or no subsequent efl^ort to extricate themseh'es, is indicated by the fact that they are always found floating face downward. Were they to struggle much, at least some of them would be likely to turn over before dying. Stub-Forests. — Within the memory of persons living not long since in L'pton, the shores of Lake Umbagog were bordered nearly every- where by large anfl vigorous coniferous trees of which very many were old-growth white pines. Most of these and of the larger spruces and arbor vitaes had been cut and rafted away by the lumbermen before my first visit to the Lake in 187L Its shores were then verdant with evergreen foliage in places, but for the most part fringed with dead or dying trees, chiefly red maples, black ashes, canoe birches, and balsam firs, which the water had killed or seriously injured not long after its level had been raised a number of feet by the dam built across the Androscoggin River at Errol in 1852.^ At the outlet and inlets of the Lake, in some of its larger coves and elsewhere where the shores were sufficiently low 1 The original dam was built that year. It was carried out by the water in 1SS7 and replaced, a little lower down the river, by the present dam which was completed in 1888. 18 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. and flat to be subject to prolonged inundation, these stubs, as they were called, stood by hundreds or even thousands in grim and bristling array. Most of them were without bark and weathered to a soft stone-grey or greyish white colour. Many had lost all their lateral branches and some were already far advanced in decay. In their trunks Nuthatches and Woodpeckers had drilled innumerable holes, only the more recent of which were occupied by the birds which had excavated them, most of the others having passed into the possession of White-bellied or " Stub" Swallows. There were also Wood Ducks, Whistlers, Goosanders, Hooded Mergansers, Bronzed Grackles, Bluebirds, Crested Flycatchers and even Kingbirds, nesting in natural cavities and hollows or in abandoned and perhaps accidentally en- larged holes made by Flickers or by Pileated Woodpeckers. Brown Creepers, too, were much given to haunting the stubs, whei-e they built their nests under large scales of semidetached bark. In short these forests of ancient and crumbling trees fairly teemed at the right season with varied and interesting bird-life. The Swallows and Grackles were especially abundant. At the mouth of Cambridge River and about the outlet of the Lake, where they bred in colonies, I have seen them rise and circle in swarms when disturbed by the report of a gun. The Woodpeckers, although scarcely less numerous, were more scat- tered and hence somewhat less conspicuous. The Ducks were least conspicuous of all because habitually too wary to often show them- selves about their nests, unless when startled from them. Those were indeed halc\on days for the ornithologists who visited Lake Umbagog in late May or early June, and who knew how to work the stub-forests systematically and intelligently for rare bird-nests. One might then find — and take without let or hindrance, for the game-laws were little regarded and seldom or never enforced — eggs of five or six species of Woodpeckers and of almost as many different kinds of Ducks, besides those of the Brown Creeper, the Canada and the White-breasted Nuthatch, the Bronzed Grackle, the White- bellied Swallow and the Kingbird, with perhaps, occasionally, a set laid by the locally rare Crested Flycatcher or by the Barred Owl. This statement should not, of course, be taken to imply that the eggs of all these species could be obtained by any one collector in a single season. Some of the birds were far from numerous and it was not always easy to find nests of even the commoner kinds among thousands of stubs, almost every other one of which was literally riddled with holes. All these could not well be examined, and long experience in this particular kind of field-work often failed to enable its possessor to distinguish BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. 19 certainly between such as would repay investigation and such as might safely lie passed by. Indeed he was sure to waste much valu- able time in climbing to promising looking but untenanted cavities, and e(|ually so to commit, every now and then, the still graver mistake of neglecting others of unpromising appearance which, as he might afterwards learn to his sorrow, had contained rare or coveted eggs; or, again he might find, upon l^reaking into and thereby ruining a nest from which a bird had been seen to fly, that he was either too early or too late for a full set of fresh eggs. These and similar difficulties and disappointments oriW added, of coiu'se, to the pleasure and interest of a da\- spent alxnit the shores of Lake Umbagog, looking for the eggs of stub-nesting birds. For upwards of twenty years after I first saw the stub-forests about the shores of Lake Umbagog, they continued to be among its most characteristic and in some respects, also, its most attractive, features. But they could not last indefinitely. One after another the lifeless trees, weakened by decay, by the attacks of wood-boring insects and by the loosening effects of water under their roots, tottered and fell, sometimes during violent gales, but perhaps oftener — strange as may seem the fact — when the weather was nearly or quite calm. I have noticed that whenever tlead trees fall in calm weather it is usually during or just after a prolonged rain which, of course, soaks into the trunks and branches, adding materially to their weight. At the outlet of the Lake very many stubs were removed by the lumbermen upwards of twenty years ago, because they impeded the passage of the logs in spring, and about the same time many of the drier and sounder ones in the coves near Upton were cut by the coun- try people for fuel. Thus the disintegrating forces of nature, some- what aided by the hand of man, have done their work, until by now the stubs are nearly gone and the shores of the Lake perhaps as gen- erally and imiformly clothed with living vegetation as they were before Errol Dam was built. But the verdure is not the same as then, for most of the pines, spruces, and arbor vitaes have disappeared and their places have been taken very largely by deciduous trees and shrubs. Fi7ie Point. — Of the many bold headlands which serve so admir- ably to diversify the shores of Lake Umbagog that known as Pine Point has most attracted and interested me. It is a wooded prom- ontory upwards of a quarter of a mile in length, forming the western extremity of a wedge-shaped tract of wilderness which separates the north arm from the more central portion of the Lake. Just across 20 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. the comparatively narrow reach (nowhere more than half a mile in width) on wliich it fronts, lie the marshes about the outlet and Moose Point. Its nearness to these famous shooting grounds had something to do with my choice of the Point for a camping ground, when in 1892 I took a lease of it, and built a log-cabin, not far from the sheltered cove that indents its southern shore. I was influenced still more perhaps by the charm of its exceeding beauty and picturesque- ness, and by knowledge of the fact that it was an exceptionally favor- able place for studying the habits and migratory movements of many forest-haunting birds. Chief among its aesthetic attractions were the wide and impressi\e views it afforded, especially from the boulder- strewn shore at its western end, of very much of the Lake and of almost innumeralile forest-clad ridges and moimtains rising tier above tier and group beyond group in every direction, as far as the eye could reach. Among the higher and more distant elevations, often obscured by clouds or haze, but plainly visible whene^•er the air was clear, one might see towards the southeast Speckled and Saddleback Mountains — separated by Grafton Notch ; to the southwest the loftier summits of the White Mountains — including Mount Wash- ington and Mount Adams; to the westward some of the mountains lying beyond the Connecticut River in northeastern ^''ermont; to the northwest Mount Aziscohos and Mount Dustin — between which the Magalloway Ri\'er flows. At the time of which I am now writing such reaches of the Lake as were visible from Pine Point had been but little marred by man. In late autumn, after most of the sportsmen and fishermen had departed and the steamer had ceased to run, there were often no obvious signs of his presence there for days in succession, when it was delightful to contemplate the wilderness of woods and waters and perhaps to foster the pleasing, if selfish, delusion that we had and might keep it, wholly to ourselves. The aspect of all this lake and mountain scenery was forever changing, not only gradually with the slow onward march of the seasons, but more or less abruptly from day to day or even hour to hour, with the ever-varying conditions of light, of wind, of clouds and of weather. All these changes could be observed and studied with little trouble or discomfort at Pine Point, where the,\' often absorbed our attention. Nowhere else have I watched to such advantage and with so much pleasure the rising and the setting of the sun and moon; the lighting of the stars ; the gathering and dispersal of fogs ; the on- coming of violent storms; the advent of the first winter snows. brewstek: birds of lake umbagog. 21 To the southward of the camp the hind sloped steeply toward the Lake and was shaded chiefly by old-growth trees of various kinds, among which were tall white pines. Just to the eastward of these was a. picturesque little cove having an attractive outlook over the Lake and bold rocky shores densely wooded with spruce, balsam, and arbor vitae. Ag it was perfectly sheltered from all winds excepting those that blew directly into it from the south, it formed a snug and con- venient harbor for canoes and rowing boats, of which we had a number more or less constantly in use. We had also a large Hoat on which supplies could be landed directly from the steamer, and a sloop-rigged house-boat forty feet in length. The latter craft was taken out only occasionally, sometimes for brief sails in strong winds, more rarely for excursions — lasting two or three days perhaps — to distant parts of the Lake. During a period somewhat later than that here referred to, I repeatedly lived in this boat with several companions, for weeks in succession, finding her a comfortable and indeed delightful floating home — especially at the height of the mosquito and black- fly season. The fact that our camping ground was not in sight of the Lake did not strike me as a disadvantage. Indeed I preferred it so for these reasons: — (1) I was unwilling to mar in any way the natural beauty of the Point as seen from the water; (2) I did not wish to gaze at or be gazed at by people in passing boats; (3) as an artist-friend once said to me "it is better to have to walk to your views," for if constantly before one's eyes the;\' are likely to lose in interest or im- pressiveness; and (4) I thought it desiral)le to keep the shyer birds that frequented the shores of the Point and its encircling waters ignorant as far as possible of our presence in their neighbourhood. That at least the first and the last named of these reasons were sound 1 never doubted in after years, when it was a constant source of pleasure to regard, from the Lake, the swelling and unbroken front of what seemed to be a wholly unspoiled and uninhabited forest, and of interest as well as pleasure, to watch through the foliage that screened the camp, Loons, Goosanders, Grebes, and other water-fowl swimming close in shore, and Eagles, Fish Hawks, Great Blue Herons, and King- fishers hovering o\er the water or perched in the trees tiiat overhung it. Although the wood-frequenting creatures must have been more or less cognizant of our presence, few of them seemed much disturbed b_\- it. Porcupines, Rabbits, and Ruffed Grouse rambled through our very door-yard, and its herbaceous vegetation was cropped close by Deer who usually \isited it by night, although on one occasion when I was 22 bulletin: mijseum of comparative zoology. absent, a yearling buck entered it in broad daylight and was shot by a guide who happened to be sitting at the time in an arm-chair just within the camp. Beneath its floor hved a co!on\' of Skunks. Hairy and Three-toed Woodpeckers dug holes in its outer walls in search of grubs, and the big scarlet-crested Pileated Woodpeckers were often seen or heard within a few rods of it. Saucy Red Squirrels came numerously and boldly by day, and Flying Squirrels more sparingly and timorousl\' b\' night, to scamper over its flat roof. Confiding Chipmunks entered it freely to take food from our hands, and White- footed Mice dwelt permanentl\- in its walls. Throughout the hours of darkness one might hear Great-horned (Jwls and Barred Owls hooting, Acadian Owls whistling or saw-whetting, and Great Blue Herons squawking, in its immediate neighbourhood. In short the human life and activity of which it formed the centre evidently inter- fered but little with the wild life by which it was surrounded. It is not likely that these conditions would hsixe continued long had' shoot- ing been freel\' indulged in on the Point. During the time I held possession of it, a gun was rarely discharged there, at least with my knowledge and consent. If the month were August or September and the night warm and calm, the low, eruptive croaking of Wood Frogs and the halting, dry- voiced soliloquies of Pickering's Hylas would be certain to come every now and then, from the depths of the woods, while on many such a night, especially if the stars — or better still the moon — were shining brightly, there was scarce ever a full minute when the faint lisping or chirping calls uttered by Warblers and other small wood-frequenting birds, passing southward on migration, failed to reach one's ears from overhead. Of the sounds coming from the direction of the Lake, the most fre- quent were the swash and rustle of low-breaking waves ; the rhythmic lapping of less troubled waters on rock-bound shores; the plash of leaping fish and diving Muskrats; the surprisingl\' loud and far- reaching noises made by wild-fowl thrashing the water with their wings; the plainti\e, long-drawn calls and weird, quavering laughter of solitary Loons — decidedly the most thrilling and delightful of all the voices of the northern wilderness; the croaking of Goosanders and of Golden-e;\es ; and the loud vibrant quacking of Black Ducks. When the air was perfectly calm, vocal sounds made by wading and swimming birds feeding by night in the marshes across the Lake could sometimes be heard faintly, but distinctly, at Pine Point. Among these were likelv to be the loud harsh haink of the Great Blue Heron; BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. 23 the hoarse qnmok of the Night Heron; the squeaUng cries of Wood Ducks; the mellow calling of sad-voiced Plovers and Sandpipers of several kinds. There were several nocturnal sounrls of whose precise origin I re- mained long ignorant, or at least in doubt. One of th(\se was a clear far-reaching whistled call, sometimes agreeably subdued and liquid, but ordinarily too loud and querulous to be wholly pleasing. It re- minded me of the qurcp of the Great-crested Flycatcher, but there were conclusive reasons why it could not be that. I lieard it fre- quently and sometimes almost incessantl\', whene\er there was a heavy south-bound flight of Warblers passing overhead, mingling with their lisping, chirping calls, but far louder than any of them and audi[)le, I thought, at distances exceeding half a mile when the air was still. Evidently the birds that produced it were often \'ery numerously represented at the Lake, yet for a time I heard it only at night. At length some birds which had been making it high in air alighted at daybreak, one morning, in a thicket of exergreens close to my tent, where they begun uttering certain notes which are characteristic of the Hermit Thrush alone. Nevertheless the mystery was not wholly solved by this experience for few, if any, Hermit Thrushes leave the Umbagog Region before the middle of September, M-hereas the night- call was heard sometimes as early as the last week in August; most frequently during the first half of September; not rarely as late as the middle of October. During the earlier part of this period there was, however, a rather heavy flight of south-bound Wilson's Thrushes and, as I now know definitely (thanks chiefl\' to another daybreak ob- servation resulting in evidence similar to that just describetl and made at Concord, Massachusetts, in August, 1907), these birds hav^e a nocturnal call indistinguishable, at least to my ears, from that of the Hermit Thrush. As far as I have been able to ascertain, they use it only when flying southward by night or just after alighting at the end of a migratory flight in the twilight of early morning. The Hermit sometimes utters it in broad daylight even at the height of his breeding season. If, as there are some reasons for belie\ing, Swainson's Thrush also shares in the possession of this interesting and almost exclusively nocturnal call, the frequency with which it is heard at Lake Uml)agog during the entire period covered by the successi\'e and more or less overlapping southward migrations of the three kinds of Thrushes above named, will no longer be difficult to explain. Some of the vocal sounds made by Owls of various kinds gave me especial and more or less lasting trouble and perplexity. One that we 24 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. used to hear only in summer and autumn, oftenest in the evening twihght, but sometimes all night long, was a strident, peevish cry coming, at short, regular intervals from the forest or from the stubs on the borders of the Lake. At times it suggested the plaint of a hungry house-eat, at others the scream of a Blue Jay, but it was never closely like either of these. As I finally ascertained, by shooting a bird that had just uttered it, it is the characteristic, if not only, call of young Great Horned Owls for the first three or four months after they leave the nest and begin to shift for themselves. In October, 1893 and September, 1S96 our camping ground was repeatedly visited at night by an unseen bird, of whose identity I was then and for some years later hopelessly in doubt. For all of the utterances by which he proclaimed his presence were wholly unfamiliar to me and also to my two guides, although both men had spent no small part of their lives in this northern wilderness. Sometimes he hooted very hurriedly in singularly subdued and dove-like tones, but much oftener gave a stentorian yell, repeated every ten or fifteen seconds for several minutes in succession, and loud enough to have been heard a mile or more away. Once when it came without warn- ing from a large balsam very near the tents in which the guides and I were just dropping off to sleep, it startled us exceedingly, bringing every man of us instantly to his feet. It varied considerably in quality, being at times like the Jwiik of a Canada Goose — only much louder; at others more like the flight-call of the Great Blue Heron; at still others not unlike the snarl of an angry cat. Twice or thrice we heard also a short, full whistle which we thought came from an Owl, but no clue was obtained during either of these autumns; se\eral years later equally unusual and not altogether dissimilar sounds were uttered very near me at Concord, Massachusetts, by a bird which I have good reason to believe must have been a Great Horned Owl. Tyler Bog. — Lying about half a mile distant from the old Lake House, the T\ler Bog furnishes — if on a somewhat limited scale ^ an excellent example of a primitive tApe of flat, semiopen country, not uncommon in remote parts of northern New England and still more prevalent further to the northward. The Bog is about one himdred and fifty yards in width where the road crosses it. Just how far it extends in the other two directions (north and south), one cannot see from the road, and I do not cer- tainl;^- know, but it is said to exceed a mile in length. The Tyler Bog was frequented by Canada Lynxes and b\' herds of Woodland Caribou, not so very many years ago. It still liarbors most of the land main- BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE LMBAGOG. 25 mals which continue to inhabit the surrounding region, and it is an especially favored haunt of the Varying Hare. Among its most characteristic summer birds are the Swainson's Thrush, Winter Wren, Canada Nuthatch, Rusty Blackbird, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and Yellow-billed Flycatcher; while ( "anada Jays, Pileated Woodpeckers, Arctic and Banded-backeil Three-toed Woodpeckers, and Spruce Grouse, occur in it at every time of year. Great Ishitul. — By far the largest island in the Lake is that known as Great Island. It lies a little to the southward of the Narrows and is perhaps half a mile in length by a quarter of a mile in breatlth. On June 11, 1897, I wrote in my journal: — The woods on Great Island are among the most beautiful and interesting that I have ever seen in this region. No lumbering has been done for over thirty years, and strange to say they are perfectly free from windfalls and almost equally so from scattered fallen trees, while even ancient, crumbling logs are scarce. The ground nearly everj'Avhere is smooth, firm, and without holes or other inequalities of surface. There are but few rocks and little or no undergrowth save yew which, near the shore of the Lake, forms a broad continuous belt extending around the whole Island. Further back the land rises in gentle slopes to the centre of the Island which is elevated fifty feet or more above the Lake and nearly level over a large area, forming a plateau in which is a swamp or bog covered with stunted spruces and occupying twenty or more acres of the middle portion. Elsewhere the entire Island is heavily w'ooded with fine old timber, many of the trees, especially the spruces, hem- locks and 3'ellow birches, being of impressive size. We found one yellow birch which had a girth of 13 feet 6 inches a foot above the ground and tapers but little for the next thirty feet upward. Its top, however, is missing and the trunk, although alive, is not sound. Floating Island. — On June 7, 1897, 1 visited what appears to be a floating island at least one hinidred acres in extent, situated in a natural meadow that extends back into the forest for a mile or more from the north side of the Androscoggin River, not far abo\e Errol Dam and some four miles from the outlet of the Lake. In summer and autumn one may reach the head of this meadow in a canoe by follow- ing a shallow, muddy creek that winds through it from end to entl. In spring it is flooded almost e\erywhere by backwater from the River. It is an iunnense raft of vegetation, literally floating on water every- where six or eight feet in depth, and supporting the roots as well as the stems of not only thickets of large, vigorous-looking alders, but also of hundreds of short, stunted, scraggy but li\'ing larches hinig with blackish Usnea. These trees, varying in height from six or eight to 26 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. fifteen or twenty feet, are scattered about irregularly, singly or in clusters. 0\er most of the bog, however, there is nothing taller than such shrubs as Kalinia glauca, Andromeda poU folia, and Rhodora. The last named is not abundant, but the other two grow in profusion and to a perfection that I have never before seen equalled. All three were in full bloom to-day, the Kalmia making the finest show and covering spaces of many square rods in extent with solid masses of rose-purple flowers. Under and among these shrubs grow fine white- fringed orchids and thousands of Caltha pahistris (the latter only just coming into bloom), besides other plants. The whole island literally swarms with Swamp Sparrows. There were also two male and three or four female Red-winged Blackbirds, two Maryland Yellow-throats, one Song Sparrow and two Savanna SparroM's, singing in a bare space covered with orange-brown moss, besides a Bittern wfiich pumped at intervals, all the forenoon. Collecting. The game-laws were not much regarded at the Lake thirty or forty years ago. Deer and Moose were "crusted" in winter and hunted with jack-lights in summer. Partridges were shot on their drumming logs in spring and xoung Ducks killed in summer, as soon as they became large enough to eat, whether they could use their wings or not. It was openl\' maintained by the guides and native hunters generall\' that the\' had a right to take game and fish for their own use and that of their families whene\er and wherever they could, regardless of the law. They acted up to this primitive belief on all occasions and for man\- years, with perfect impunity. Nor did they object to outsiders following the same principle, although illegal killing for the market was not approved by them. Our collecting operations excited some adverse comment at first, besides \-ery general wonder and curiosit\', but they were never seriously interfered with by any one. Mr. Horatio R. Godwin, the landlord of Lake House, was too intelligent and broad-minded to misunderstand them. He had much influence among his neighbors, and as it was exerted in our favor our work soon ceased to l)e regarded other than with friendly interest and sympathy, which naturally made it doubly pleasant. Even the energetic and efficient game-warden, Mr. Monroe Wormell of Bethel, whose name was for some years a terror to every game-poacher throughout the state, never made us any trouble, although he often BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. 27 ctunc to I 'pton and was pertVctly'awure of what we were doing there. Indeed I frequently talked with him about it. He held — and wisely, I think — that technical infractions of the law, if committed for some obviousl\- necessary or worthy purpose, might often he ignored with advantage rather than detriment to its general usefulness and efficacy. From the Stone brothers I learned much of interest concerning their shooting experiences when the,\' were living together on the farm near the Narrows. This must ha\e been between about 1830 and 1848 or 1849, although the exact limits of the period are not specified in my notes. The region was then practically unknown to city sportsmen, and the nati\e hunters had the game pretty nuich to themselves. Most of them were too sparing of ammunition to expend it on any- thing of less size or \alue than a Moose, a Caribou, a Bear, or an Otter, but the Stones were exceptions to this rule, for they were especially devoted to the pursuit of water-fowl. These they hunted systemati- cally and very successfully, sometimes by methods which, although at that time practised elsewhere and generally regarded as legitimate, are now everywhere forbidden b\' law and justly reprobated by all true sportsmen. Thus they had a huge gun mounted on a swivel and used chiefly in brush-stands erected at \'arious places along the Lake shores where Ducks and Geese congregated to feed. It was heavily charged and, when fired into a compact fiock of birds, often did great execution. The Ducks and Geese obtained in this and other ways were killed not only for their flesh l)ut also for their feathers, which were prized for filling those once ubiquitous, but now almost obsolete abominations of New England farm-houses — the old time feather-l)eds. A favorite resort for water-birds of ever\' kind was about Great Island. Here the Canada Geese came in the evening twilight to feed in the reedy shallows through the night, returning before sunrise the next morning to the north arm, where they rested and slept all day, floating well out from shore in the open water, secure from danger. They appeared regularly and in great numbers, in both spring and autumn, spending weeks at a time in the Lake, but ne\'er remaining there to breed. There were innumerable Ducks, especially in autumn when solid beds or rafts of them, covering the surface of the water over spaces acres in extent, might be seen in many of the coves. Goosanders, Hooded IVIergansers, Whistlers and other species given to obtaining their food chiefly by diving were the most numerously represented. Hlack Ducks were much less abundant. The Stones agreed in assuring me that it was unusual to find more than three or four hundred of them 28 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. collected in any one place. I have ^en nearly if not quite as many at Moose Point in the course of a single evening, but Canada Geese had almost ceased to alight in the Lake before I began to visit it. Joseph Stone who lived for more than thirty years at Umbagog says that Sheldrake, Whistlers, Mergansers, and other Ducks came to the Lake in thousands. He has seen ten acres of solid masses of Ducks. A favorite feeding-ground of both Geese and Ducks was about Great Island. Mr. Simeon Frost tells me that he came to Upton in 1840. There was then only a spotted trail through the woods from Brown's in Grafton. There were two or three houses on Upton Hill, the lowest near where Steve Morse now lives. He came to assist in Abbott's Mill, and marrying Enoch Abbott's daughter (sister of William Abbott of the Umbagog House, then the only house here), built the Lake House in 1859. At that time Moose, Bears, Deer and other large game were abundant in the adjoining woods. He has repeatedly seen Moose on the meadows below the Lake House. Sheklrake then used to fish in the rapids below the Dam. In windy weather he has seen thousands of Ducks packed in the first stretch of river below the elm tree. RufFed Grouse were ten times more numerous than they are now. Wild Pigeons darkened the heavens. Canada Geese visited the Lake in both spring and fafl in immense flocks, staying several weeks. Trout could be caught anywhere in the Lake or rivers in spring and fall by hundreds. The Moose lasted only about ten years or until 1850. He attributes their disappearance to the building of Middle and Errol Dams, when there was frequent blasting of heavy charges. They were never slaughtered for their hides here, being only killed in limited numbers for food. Faunal Relations. The bird-fauna of the region about Lake Umbagog is so essentially, and indeed almost purely Canadian that a simple statement to that effect would perhaps express all that need be said on the subject. It is true that my list of birds will be found to include se^•eral more or less typical Alleghanian forms, such as the Wood Thrush, the Brown Thrasher, the Warbling Vireo, the Field Sparrow, the Towhee, the Baltimore Oriole, and the Green Heron. But as these, without exception, are only rare or occasional visitors, and as most of them breed regularly — if sparingly and locally — only thirty or forty BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. 29 miles to the southward, their occasional appearance at the Lake has no particular significance nor even any especial interest. Migration. About Lake I'mbagog one may find at almost any time of year, except late autumn, winter, and early spring, a greater number and variety of birds than are likely to be met with elsewhere in northern New England. Nor is this surprising, for the Umbagog Region is so comparatively secluded and undisturl)ed, and so ver\' diversified, that it affords congenial haunts and abundant food for birds of widely differing tastes and habits. Indeed there are few species ranging thus far north or south along the Atlantic Slope, and not strictly confined to the sea-coast, which do not occur at one or another season near this beautiful Lake. Water-fowl are attracted by its shallow, winding reaches and connecting rivers; waders, by its bordering mud-flats and grass}' meadows; birds that affect the haunts of man, by the farming country at its southern end; woodland birds of many different kinds, by the forests that encompass it on almost every hand, stretching thence northward into Canada. Most primitive forests of large extent, lying thus far north, are said to be ill-supplied with bird- life, but it fairly teems in those about Lake Llmbagog as far back as I have ever had occasion to penetrate them. In summer their inner recesses are perhaps less favored in this respect than are their confines and sunny openings — especially near the Lake — but in spring and autumn when the migrations are under way, \Yarblers,\'ireos, Thrushes, and other wood-frequenting birds are often distributed very evenly and numerously over the entire country, occurring quite as abundantly in the heart of the forest as an\'^vhere else. The Lake evidently lies in an avian pathway much travelled by migrating birds if, indeed, it be not the principal route taken by those which pass through the interior of New P]ngland to and from breeding-grounds further north. It is followed regularly, not only by hordes of passerine birds, but also by a surprising numl^er of water-fowl and waders. I have knowTi days in autunm when there must have been nearly, if not quite, one thousand Scoters swimming in the Lake at once, or when the mud- flats and marshes at its outlet were so thronged with Golden, Black- breasted, and Semipalmated Plover, Greater and Lesser Yellow -legs. Pectoral Sandpipers, Dunlin, and Least and Semipalmated Sand- pipers, that they rose in clouds like .swarming fli#s whenexer a gun was fired. Indeed I have had better success in shooting limicolines, the 30 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. so-called shore-birds, in these marshes than anywhere on Cape Cod. They occur numerously, however, only in late summer or early autumn, and then only when their feeding-grounds are in exceptionally good condition. Their regular visits anfl occasional abundance at these seasons seem at first thought not a little remarkable, for one cannot help wondering how so many of them finfl their way to this little Lake, lying seventy or more miles inland, buried among dense forests and towering mountains. It is not probable that they reach it directly from the New P^ngland coast. At least I have ne^•er known them to come from that direction, although it has been my frequent experience to see them approaching from the northward, usually not long after daybreak, and hundreds or pei-haps thousands of feet above the Lake. Some descend to the water or marshes after circling a few times, others keep on southward without alighting. Thus it would appear that very many of these wading and swimming birds visit the Lake, not because it has for them attractions superior to those of the sea-coast, but simply because it affords a convenient halting place where they may break, perhaps for the last time, a prolonged overland journey. All this applies of course only to their autumnal move- ments. Their spring flights at the Lake are apparently comparatively light and mfrequent, and I have little definite knowledge of them. There are good reasons for believing that the bulk of the birds just mentioned came from Hudson Bay. Most of them occur there numerously in late summer or early autumn, and very many breed there also. When the shortening days and increasing cold warn them that the hour for departure is at hand, such of them as are accustomed to spend the winter along the New England seaboard or to visit it before pushing further south, have their choice of at least two widely different routes, each of which, no doubt, has attractions peculiarly its own. Thus they may go through Hudson Strait and thence around the eastern shores of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, following the se.a-coast all the way — an obvious advantage for birds of maritime tastes and habits — or they may take a much shorter path leading overland in a southeasterly direction from James Bay, the extreme southern extension of Hudson Bay. Should they select the former route and avoid the deeper indentations of the coast by striking boldly across more or less wide stretches of ocean, from one headland to the next, the total distance they must cover is not less than twenty -five himdred miles; nor can it be brought much within two thousand miles, if they pass inside Newfoundland, througli the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and over the narrow neck of land at the head of the Bay brewsteh: birds of lake umbagog. 31 of Funcly — as many south-hound wadinji; and swinuning birds are known to do. In comparison with this circuitous journey, the over- hmd flight above referred to is a mere l)ai;atelle, for tlie distance in a straight Hue from James Bay to Portland, Maine, is less than seven hundred miles. If such a line be drawn on the map, it will be found to pass very near, if not actually through, Lake Umbagog. Most of the country which it traverses is uninhabited (or but sparsely settled) and well supplied with lakes and rivers. Thus tliere are doubtless many bodies of water besides Umbagog where migrating waders and wild- fowl that follow this route are accustomed to alight for rest and food. Although I incline to believe that the majority of them come all the w ay from Hudson Bay in a practically direct course, there are probal)ly tributary lines of migration which join the main one at different points, and where the St. Lawrence River is crossed, there may be a very considerable accession of birds derived from the westward through the chain of Great Lakes. The longer one reflects on all these facts and probabilities, the less surprising it seems that such birds as Plover, Yellow-legs, Dunlin, Sanderling, Scoters, Old Squaws, and Horned Grebes, may be found almost as frequently- and numerously in autiunn at Lake Umbagog as along the coast of IVIassachusetts. I have sometimes wondered if the seemingly exceptional abundance of migrating passerine birds of various kinds at Lake U^mbagog may not be more apparent than real, and due, at least in part, to their evident tendency to drift through the forest to the Lake shores, where they halt and concentrate, especially on wooded points. But no such explanation will account for the undoubtetl fact that their nocturnal flights are here of unusual frequency and magnitude, particularly in the autumn. Although the eye fails to note them, even in bright moonlight, the testimony of the ear is sufficient to enable one to judge with reasonable accuracy as to their character and extent, for the birds that compose them are continually calling to one another as they wing their way southward, and their voices can be heard distinctly enough whenever the air is calm. It is perhaps open to doubt if such of these birds as alight at daybreak in the forests about the Lake find more abundant food or better shelter there than they might find in almost any other wooded part of northern New England. However this may be, the route they take has one obvious advantage over most, if not all, the other less frequented ones, for it abounds to a very exceptional degree in conspicuous landmarks, such as birds are believed to depend on in shaping their courses by night. Most useful of these without doubt are the higli mountains, altliough the larger lakes, such as those 32 bulletin: museum of comparative zo6i,ogy. of the Rangeley Chain, may be of no slight service, especially when, as so often happens in early autumn, they are enveloped in billowy banks of fog — almost as white and conspicuous in obscure lights as snow- drifts. Taken in combination, all these more northern lakes and mountains, with the mountains lying further to the southward, must furnish to birds that know them through past experience an unbroken chain of familiar landmarks, stretching north and south across the greater part of New England. To human eyes looking down from a superior elevation on such a landscape, all its more prominent features are clearly, if somewhat faintly, revealed at night by the light of the stars alone. Even if the birds see them no better than we do they can make use of them as so many conveniently placed guide-posts, marking a route they are evidently given to following all the way from the Canadian border to within sight of Long Island Sound. At this point I digress to say a few words about the time-honored belief that many, if not most, birds are guided in their migrations by an intuitive sense of direction or homing instinct, now commonly called orientation. At first almost uni\ersally accepted and after- wards very generally discredited, this belief has gained renewed cre- dence of late, chiefly l)ecause of the outcome of an interesting experi- ment made by Dr. Watson, (Carnegie inst. Washington, Publ., 103, 1908), with adult Noddy and Sooty Terns. P^ive of these, taken in June from their breeding-ground on the Dry Tortugas, were lil)erated off Cape Hatteras, whence at least three of them returned to the Tortugas in the course of a few days. The importance of this evidence seems to me to have been overestimated and its precise significance more or less misinterpreted. Apparently Dr. Watson claims and certain other subsec^uent writers believe, that these particular birds could not have visited Cape Hatteras before, simply because no others of their kind had l)een found there. This, I think, is a rather rash assumption, for the l)ird-life of the shoal and dangerous watei's about Hatteras remains but imperfectly known to ornithologists, and it is by no means certain that Sooty Terns do not sometimes go there. Even if it be granted — as is indeed proljable — that Dr. Watson's birds had never lieen there, the apparent ease with which they found their way back to the Tortugas fails to impress me as mysterious or even very remarkable. For with the weather clear and an almost straight coast-line leading directly to waters with which they were perfectly familiar, they could not well have gone wrong. Indeed the feat they performed seems a simple matter compared with that which I have often witnessed in Vineyard Sound, when Common Terns breeding on BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE IMBAGOG. 33 Muskeget Island were fixing to or from it, low over the water, through the densest possible fog, each bird apparently heading as straight for the point it desired to reach as if it were steering by a tiny compass eml)edded at the base of its bill. Such experiences convinced me long ago that Terns and other sea-frequenting birds must possess a highly specialized, and for the most part, intuitive sense of direction. Land- birds, also, may have more or less of it, but they, in my opinion, are less often guided by it than by conspicuous landmarks — and for this obvious reason, that their journeys are conducted for the most part over regions where such marks abound, whereas sea-birds must often traverse wide expanses of water dex'oid of prominent objects and seemingly uniform in aspect, at least to human eyes. But for mi- grating birds of every kind, whether they travel by day or b\' night, over land or over sea, there are shining beacons, of which one or more are visible everywhere and at all times, whenever the sky is not ob- scured by clouds or fogs. I refer, of course, to the sun, the moon, and the stars. It is true that few of these remain stationary in the heavens. Nexertheless, it does not strike me as inconceivable, nor even so very improbable, that the birds may take some note of them and that the sun and moon at least may frequently serxe certain of the more acute and obser\ing species as guides to direction. No doubt the bare possibility of such a thing would be denied by many, if not most, modern naturalists, especially the younger ones belonging to that school of opinion, now so popular, which insists that of all the beings on this earth man alone is capable of intelligent observ^ation or pos- sesses anything approaching reasoning power. ANNOTATED LIST. COLYMBIDAE. Colymbus grisigena holboelli (Reinhardt). Holboell's Grebe. Transient visitor, not unoommon in autumn, apparently rare in spring. Maj- 21, 1897, two, in breeding plumage, seen together in the Lake. October 15-25. October 8, 1893, two heard calling at night. November 1, 1884, one seen in the Lake. Seldom if ever have I spent an autunm at Lake Umbagog without seeing a few Holboell's Greb&. They begin to appear before the middle 34 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. of October, and occur oftenest during the latter half of that month, frequenting the broader, deeper reaches of the Lake, where there is little or no aquatic vegetation, and rarely venturing within gunshot of its shores. Sometimes they are met with singly, sometimes in flocks containing as many as eight or nine birds each, — with, perhaps, one or two Horned Grebes, also. I have never known them to alight in neighboring ponds or riveis, although it is probable that they occasion- ally do so. It is their usual, if not invariable, practice to arrive from the north during the night or just at daybreak and to pass on south- ward early in the following night. Thus they are accustomed to migrate during the hours of darkness, and to spend only a single day in the Lake, where, if unmolested, they float or paddle idly about, seldom or never diving except when startled or pursued. This behaviour has led me to conclude that they find here but little if any food such as they require and that the Lake serves them chiefly as a resting place where they can drink and bathe, and doze in the autumn sun, with reasonable security, after an overland flight, doubtless of considerable length, and perhaps extending, when completed, all the way from the salt waters of Hudson Bay to those of the ocean off Portland, Maine, — a distance of some seven hundred miles. Along this route — assuming that they really follow it — are scattered many lakes and rivers where they may break the journey, if so inclined, before reaching Umbagog, beyond which, however, they are not likely to pause again until they arrive at the sea-coast. The following passages from my journal describe some of the most interesting field-experiences I have had with Holboell's Grebe at Lake Umbagog : — 1889, October 19. — Just after breakfast we discovered a flock of six Old Squaws in the Lake off B Brook Cove. Concealing the bows of our boat with a screen of grass we started after them when Jim spied another flock of eight light-coloured birds within a few hundred yards. We paddled up to these at once. Through my glass I could see that they were Grebes and that one was unmistakably a Horned Grebe. The others looked no larger, and although they appeared browner in colour, I concluded that all were Horned Grebes. When we were within thirty yards I raised my head and began to talk to Jim. Hitherto all the birds in the flock had been floating idly on the calm water or pluming themselves, but the moment I showed myself up went seven long necks, and to my surprise I saw that their owners were Holboell's Grebes. It was too late for a bunch-shot as they scattered at once and began to swim. The next instant they flew, when I brought down one with each barrel, getting both birds after several more shots at them in the water. They made short dives and showed the whole of the neck as well as the head, but not the body, when- ever they came to the surface. BREWSTER: BIRDS OF LAKE UMBAGOG. '.15 1889, October 24. — Early this morning we noticed nine large birds swim- ming well out in deep water off the entrance to Sunday Cove. They turned out to be Red-necked Grebes. Taking advantage of the strong light cast by the rising sun on the smooth water, we put the boat in its shining pathway and paddled towards them. Of course it dazzled their eyes whenever they looked in our direction, yet gave us no similar inconvenience. One left the others and swam straight to meet us coming within twenty-five yards when I shot it. The others scattered and dove, not one flying. They proved nearly as agile and resourceful divers as Loons, and after chasing several of them considerable distances, we had to give up what was evidently a hopeless attempt to secure another specimen. As we were approaching the flock, a Brook Trout that must have weighed fully eight pounds sprang clear of the water within twenty yards of us. It came out broadside and we distinctly saw its red spots and broad square tail. 1890, October 13. — We saw two Horned Grebes and what I took to be a Red-necked Grebe. The latter was very noisy caUing kr-r-uck, kr-ar-r-r, krur, almost like a Raven. 1893, October 8. — At frequent intervals after dark this evening and at times quite regularly every half minute or so there came to our ears from the Lake a sound which none of us remembered to have ever heard before. To be more accurate there were two sounds which, although radically different, evi- dently proceeded from the same source, for one invariably accompanied or rather preceded the other. The first was a peculiar pulsating whistle, hollow in tone and closely similar to the sound made by the wings of the Golden-eye. This was immediately followed by a strident crar-ar-r-r-r which was usually repeated two or three times. It was always preceded and sometimes also followed by the whistle. Both sounds were loud enough to be easily heard at the distance of a mile or more. They came from the middle of the Lake and must have been made by some species of water-fowl. Once the bird — what- ever it was — flew up and down the Lake, giving its strange cries repeatedly as it passed our camp. Will Sargent thought that the whistle as well as the crar-ar-r-r-r was of vocal origin, and I had the same impression. 1893, October 9. — Soon after breakfast this morning we heard the same mj'sterious cries that were noted last night. They came from the direction of B Point off which we could see a large bird in the water, too far away, however, to be made out distinctly even with the aid of the glass. Jim Bernier, who came up on the steamer a little later, assures me that it was a Red-necked Grebe; he knows this species perfectly well having seen me shoot several. He says the steamer ran past it within short gunshot-range, affording him a good view of it. It was the only water-bird of any kind which they saw above the Narrows, and the Lake was as smooth as glass at the time. I now recollect hearing the crar-ar-r-r-r cry in October, 1890 and attributing it then to Hol- boell's Grebe. While the evidence in the present case is not conclusive, it leaves little doubt in my mind that the author of the cries above described must be Holboell's Grebe. 1897, May 21. — At seven or* clock this morning I started off alone in a canoe 36 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. through the narrow, winding channel that leads around the northern end of Great Island into the broad arm of the Lake known as the Sweat Cove. Wreaths of rose-tinted mist were rising everywhere and drifting and swirling lazily along the heavily-wooded shores, but for a time there was not enough air stirring to disturb the glassy surface of the calm water. How the birds sang! It reminded me of good old days to hear their voices coming incessantly from far and near on every hand, in fairly bewildering numbers and variety. The breeze began to rise and to dispel the fog just as I emerged from the western end of the channel. Far out from shore near the middle of the Cove I could see a pair of Black Ducks swimming, and not far from them two other water- fowl which puzzled me at first and indeed until I got within a hundred yards of them. When still at a considerable distance they floated high in the water and looked very like Goosanders, but as I got nearer they stretched up long, slender necks and immediately after this flattened or perhaps partially sub- merged their bodies, at the same time beginning to swim rapidly away from me down wind, after the manner of Scoters. I now saw that they were Hol- boell's Grebes, a species which I have never met with here in spring before. They were both in full-nuptial plumage and beautiful birds, the rich chestnut of their necks and the fine ash colour of the throat showing with perfect dis- tinctness in the right lights. Although essentially alike I judged from certain of their actions that they were opposite sexes and probably a mated pair. When I got within one hundred yards of them they took to diving, often re- maining under water a surprising length of time, but progressing little or no farther than Whistlers or Scoters would have gone, and not once doubling or attempting to pass me beneath the surface. Hitherto they had kept near together — in fact almost touching one another — but now they became widely separated. One, after making only three or four plunges, rose on wing with apparent ease against the now freshening breeze, and passed me within sixty yards, flying straight and swiftly (if heavily), very like a Loon with the neck stretched out to its full length in front of the body, the legs and feet showing in line with it behind. Soon after alighting again, about two hundred yards away, this bird began calling in an exceedingly loud harsh voice not unlike that of an angry Crow but of much greater volume and intensity. The calls, moreover, were uttered more slowly and indeed with a singular deliberation — ■ or perhaps I should rather say hesitancy — which seemed oddly out of keeping with their imperious quality or tone. There were usually three, but occasion- ally four, notes given in slow succession, each sounding like car sometimes lengthened to cMr or to a broken or quavering ca-a-a-r or ca-a-a-a-r. These calls (which I had heard before at Lake Umbagog but never until now defi- nitely traced to Holboell's Grebe) were promptly answered by the other bird which I took to be the female, and which all the while I had been pressing hard until she had been driven close in shore. She, however, nearly always gave the prolonged, quavering form of outcry, occasionally prefacing it by a stac- cato kup very like that of the Florida Gallinule. I did not succeed in making her fly, and soon after I left her she and the other quickly swam together. I ■ could easily have shot them both had I been so minded. BREWSTER: BIRDS OK LAKE UMBAGOG. 37 According to both RidgAvay and Coues (I have consulted no other authorities), the adults as well as young of Holboell's Grebe should invariably wear in autumn a sober brown and white (or greyish) livery quite unlike the strikingly handsome nuptial plumage. Most of the birds we see in Lake Umbagog in October are thus plainly dressed, but two of my specimens from there (30,275, 9 , 19 October, 1889 and 30,274, 9 , 24 October, 1889) have the sides of the neck rufous, paler in shade it is true than with V)reeding examples, yet essentially pure and so pronounced that I remember noticing it when the birds were swimming in the Lake at gunshot-distance. One of them (30,274) appears to have been adult, but the other has the sides of the head striped so like those of young Grebes of this species, just from the nest, that I doul)t if it had completed the first year of its existence. I have a similarly-marked and coloured specimen that was killed in September in British Columbia and I have seen others with conspicuously reddish necks that had been obtained in autumn on the coast of Massachusetts. Colymbus auritus Linne. Horned Grebe. Transient visitor, regularly common and sometimes abundant in autumn, not known to occur in spring. October 2, 1884, two seen off Pine Point'. October 12-25. Much of what I have written about Holboell's Grebe could be said with equal truth of the Horned Grebe, but the latter species is much the more numerously represented of the two in autumn, while I have no definite knowledge that it ever occurs in spring.' From the passages relating to it in my journal and note-books I select the following: — 1882, October 18. — While looking for Ducks this afternoon I noticed a flock of eight birds swimming in deep water near the middle of the south arm of the Lake. At first I took them for Scoters, but they proved to be Horned Grebes. Their behaviour surpri.sed me not a little, it was so very unlike that which I hitherto supposed to be characteristic of Grebes of every kind. My I Mrs. Charles Bartlett of Poplar Tavern, Newry, once .showed me a mounted Horned Grebe which she said had Ix-cn kilk'