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