eh if ae ae Be | i He ete re a ITE Ee tee epee te He “4 tae PAH fe ie Soper e sips Sa eee Sea pee epee Sees CORNELL LAB of ORNITHOLOGY LIBRARY AT SAPSUCKER WOODS Illustration of Snowy Owl by Louts Agassiz Fuertes Cornell University Library QL 684.M4T74 "linia 3 1924 022 552 297 orni Laboratory of Ornithelogy 159 Sapsucker Waeds Road Cornell University Ithaca, New York 1485 | DATE DUE GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S.A ‘HOIMSdI ‘“SHNOd GNVS AHL ANV ‘HOVEd GNVS AHL NVdA00 AHL ‘TIT 1IOUISWGW "O'O'N Memoirs of the Muttall Ornithological Club. No. III. THE BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS. By CHARLES WENDELL TOWNSEND, M. D. WITH ONE PLATE AND MAP. CAMBRIDGE, MASS. PUBLISHED BY THE CLUB. APRIL, 1905. ip ee 6s 4 yy 7? CONTENTS. PREFACE ‘ , ; . 3 . ‘ 3 < 3 ‘ - CHAPTER I. TOPOGRAPHY AND FAUNAL AREAS . : ‘ ; 3 CuHapPTerR II. THE OCEAN AND ITs BIRDS CuHaPTeER III. THE SanD BEACHES AND THEIR BIRDS CHAPTER IV. Tue Sand DUNES AND THEIR BIRDS CHAPTER V. Tue SaLT MARSHES AND THEIR BIRDS . F CuaptTer VI. THe FRESH MARSHES AND THEIR BIRDS . j CuHaPTER VII. THE PONDS AND THEIR BIRDS . CuaptTerR VIII. LicgHTHousE REcoRDS : i ‘ : ‘ ; . CuapteR IX. ORNITHOLOGICAL History or Essex County. 1616-1904 CHAPTER X. ANNOTATED LIST OF THE Birps oF Essex County. INTRODUCTION ‘ 3 3 . a S : 3 ANNOTATED LIST . ; . : ‘ 4 INTRODUCED SPECIES . : ‘ ‘ z ‘i i : APOCRYPHAL SPECIES . ‘ ‘ 5 ‘ ‘i i SUMMARY ‘ é : ‘ ‘ . 3 5 ‘ * ; ADDENDA : : : i * : : . 5 ‘ 3 ‘i BIBLIOGRAPHY F F a: ‘ ‘ ‘ ; : ‘ ‘ : ERRATA j INDEX . Fs 2 ‘ : : ‘ ‘ y ‘ . és ‘ ‘ 12 18 30 43 49 53 60 74 74 77 315 318 319 320 322 332 333 PREFACE. In the following pages will be found first, a brief description of Essex County with a general view of its geology, flora, and faunal areas; then follow chapters on the regions and their birds, peculiar to a maritime county, namely, the ocean, the sand beaches, the sand dunes, and the salt marshes. There are also chapters on the fresh marshes and on the ponds and their birds. These are followed by chapters on the records from lighthouses along the coast and on the ornithological history of Essex County. In the introduction to the Annotated List, the names of many ornitho- logical workers are given who have generously contributed their notes and observations, and to all of these I wish here to express my sincere thanks. Particularly I wish to thank Mr. William Brewster for the use of his collection and for the identification of doubtful specimens; Mr. Walter Deane for many kindnesses and for reviewing the botanical part of this list; Mr. W. A. Jeffries for his own notes and those of his brother, the late Dr. J. A. Jeffries; Mr. J. A. Farley for many valuable records, especially as regards the breeding of birds of prey; Dr. J. C. Phillips for his records from Wenham Lake; Mr. John Rob- inson and Mr. John H. Sears for their kindness to me in the use of the col- lection of the Peabody Academy, at Salem; Mr. Ralph Hoffmann for much kindly help and criticism, and Dr. Glover M. Allen for his great assistance in revising manuscript and proof. I am also indebted to him for the map. I have attempted to make the Annotated List as complete and accurate as possible, and have banished to a doubtful list all birds about which there is the least question. In the case of most of the water birds the annotations are given fully from my own observations not only as to the habits of the birds but also as to their call notes and their recognition in the field, as these birds are so characteristic of a seashore region, and are so often slightly treated in the books. Of the land birds, a few only of the characteristic and interesting ones are treated at any length, such as the Horned Lark, American Crow, Snow Bunting, Lapland Longspur, Ipswich Sparrow, Sharp-tailed Sparrows, the Swal- lows, and a few others. A Bibliography is given at the end of the memoir. Boston, November, 1904. 6 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. CHAPTER I. TOPOGRAPHY AND FAUNAL AREAS. “The forme of the earth here in the superficies of it, is neither too flat in the plainnesse, nor too high in hils, but partakes of both in mediocritie, and fit for pasture, or for plow or meddow ground, as men please to employ it... . [It] hath water enough, both salt and fresh, the greatest sea in the world, the Atlanticke sea, runs all along the coast there of.... Also wee have store of excellent harbours for ships, as at Cape Anne,....and at Salem.”’— Hicerinson, “ New England’s Plantation,” 1630. Essex County is in the northeast corner of Massachusetts, between lati- tude 42° 25’ and 42° 55' north, and longitude 70° 35’ and 71° 15’ west. The most southern point is some seven miles north of Boston. The County has a total area of about 500 square miles, and a coast line of about 100 miles. It includes the following cities and towns, thirty-five in all: Amesbury, Andover, Beverly, Boxford, Bradford, Danvers, Essex, Georgetown, Gloucester, Groveland, Hamilton, Haverhill, Ipswich, Lawrence, Lynn, Lynnfield, Manchester, Marble- head, Merrimac, Methuen, Middleton, Nahant, Newbury, Newburyport, North Andover, Peabody, Rockport, Rowley, Salem, Salisbury, Saugus, Swampscott, Topsfield, Wenham, West Newbury. Magnolia lies partly in Gloucester, and partly in Manchester on the coast. Gloucester, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lynn, and Salem each have a population of over 25,000, Lynn having nearly if not quite 70,000 inhabitants. The population of the whole County is about 350,000. Nearly all the towns date back to the early part of the seventeenth century, the oldest, Salem, having been settled in 1628, while Essex was set apart as a shire or county, in 1643. The County is nearly diamond-shaped, with four almost equal sides. The apex of the diamond is at the junction of the New Hampshire boundary and the coast line. The eastern angle is at the end of Cape Ann, the western nearly on a level with the most southern part of New Hampshire, so that a portion, per- haps a third of the County, is as far north as southern New Hampshire. To the north of Cape Ann is a series of nearly straight, sandy beaches, interrupted by the mouths of rivers, and backed by sand dunes, extensive salt marshes, and numerous tidal estuaries and creeks. Beginning on the northern border, which is also the boundary of the State from New Hampshire, the BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 4 sequence of beaches and rivers is as follows: Salisbury Beach, 34 miles ; Merrimac River; Plum Island Beach, 9 miles ; Ipswich River ; Ipswich Beach, 34 miles; Essex River; Coffin’s Beach, or Wingzersheek, 13 miles ; Squam River. This last river, with the help of a short canal to Gloucester Harbor, converts Cape Ann into an island projecting out some 12 miles into the Atlantic. The shores of Cape Ann are irregular and rocky, with outlying rocky islands and here and there a small pebbly or sandy beach. The southern coast of Essex County trends from Cape Ann to the south- west, and differs radically in character from the shore to the north of the Cape. It is bold and rocky, of irregular contour, with several harbors more or less protected, the harbors, namely, of Gloucester, Manchester, Beverly, Salem, Marblehead, and Lynn. There are numerous outlying rocks and rocky islands, and a number of small sandy or pebbly beaches and coves. Nahant projects out into the ocean as a rocky peninsula connected with the mainland by a narrow sand ridge on both sides of which are beaches. The rocks of this shore are ancient granites and sienites, intersected with many eruptive trap dykes, especially at Nahant, Marblehead, and Cape Ann. Cape Ann itself is one mass of rock, the seat of numerous granite quarries. There are no extensive salt marshes on this shore except the small portion of the Lynn Marshes that are included within Essex County, and no sand dunes, slight accumulations only of sand occurring behind the beaches, as at Magnolia, Swampscott, and Lynn. Woods and cultivated fields extend in many places to the water’s edge. This is the famous “ North Shore,” and fashion has full sway. The largest river of the County is the Merrimac River, which flows in a northwesterly direction, nearly parallel with the northern boundary. South of this, and running in a similar direction, is the much smaller Ipswich River, while between the two are the small streams of the Parker and Rowley Rivers, which are chiefly tidal estuaries. The Shawsheen River, a tributary of the Merrimac, flows north through the western part of the County. The Essex, Squam, Bass, and Saugus Rivers are all small and are also chiefly tidal in their character. The last glacial period has most emphatically set its stamp on Essex County, as is everywhere shown by the glacial grooves and scratches and pol- ished surfaces of the rocks, by the immense numbers of glacial boulders, large and small, by the glacial drift, lateral, terminal, and kettle moraines, eskers, and kames, and by the numerous drumlins. Ship Rock, in Peabody, estimated to weigh 1100 tons, and Agassiz Rock, in Manchester, are famous boulders. Dogtown Commons, on Cape Ann, is an elevated plateau covered with an im- mense number of boulders of all sizes —a great terminal moraine. 8 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. The hills are of typical drumlin formation, circular in form for the most part, or oblong, with their axes running generally northwest and southeast. They are abundantly scattered throughout the County. More than seventy-five are over 200 feet in height, while as many more are between 100 and 200 feet. The highest hills are two in North Andover, each measuring 400 feet above the sea. This is the highest land in the County. The bases of these two hills are 120 to 180 feet above the sea level. A few of the hills are mentioned here with their heights above the sea: on Cape Ann, Pigeon Hill, 180 feet; in Essex, Hog Island, the birthplace of Rufus Choate, 140 feet; in Ipswich, Cas- tle Hill, 140 feet, Heartbreak Hill, 180 feet, Turkey- Hill, 240 feet; in Salis- bury, Powow Hill, 330 feet; in Amesbury, Beech Hill, 200 feet; in West Newbury, Long Hill, 200 feet ; in Groveland, Crane Hill, 234 feet ; in Danvers, Asylum Hill, 240 feet; in Andover, Wood Hill, 340 feet, Prospect Hill, 340 feet ; in North Andover, Holt’s Hill, 400 feet, a long hill, 400 feet; in George- town, Bald Pate, 340 feet; in Topsfield, Great Hill, 240 feet. Most of the islands in the salt marshes are drumlins, the lower outlines of which are obscured by the accumulations of the marsh. As in all glacial regions small lakes and ponds abound, and they are scat- tered generally throughout the County. There are about 60 of these ponds varying in size from a few rods across up to the largest, which are one or two miles in length. The principal of these are: Wenham Lake, in Wenham and Beverly ; Chebacco Lake, in Essex and Hamilton; Kimball’s Pond, in Ames- bury and Merrimac; Johnson’s Pond, in Groveland and Boxford; Lake Cochicke- wick, in North Andover; Haggett’s and Foster’s Ponds, in Andover ; Billings Pond, in Lynnfield; and the series of ponds in and near the Lynn Woods. Another feature of the County, also interesting from an ornithological point of view, is the great number of fresh-water swamps, near the ponds and rivers. These were formerly extensions of the ponds or large basins in the river sys- tems, and have become filled with vegetation and sediment since the glacial period. Along the shore at Lynn, Salem, Beverly, Manchester, Rockport, and Ipswich, submerged roots and stumps of forests, and beds of peat and leaf mould have been found, showing subsidence of the land within recent years. There are also evidences in various places of elevation of the land as shown by old shore lines, and areas of sand or sand dunes, as at Turkey Hill, in Ipswich, some distance above sea level. As in all long inhabited and thickly settled regions, there are no extensive forests, and most of the drumlins are, unless built upon, exposed in all their nakedness, covered only with barren pastures or cultivated fields. The largest areas of forest growth are in Manchester and Essex, the Essex Woods, and in Topsfield, Middleton, Boxford, Lynnfield, and Andover. Here white pine BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 9 (Pinus strobus), pitch pine (Pinus rigida), and hemlock (7suga canadensis) are to be found. Spruces, the black spruce (Pzcea nigra) only, are nowhere abundant and are generally confined to small swamps in Essex, Middleton, Ipswich, and Hamilton. There are a few sphagnum bogs where larch (Larix americana) and white cedar (Chamecyparis spherotdea) occur, the latter being not uncommon in Lynnfield. There are no white nor red spruces, nor balsam firs, except introduced specimens. In the numerous overgrown pastures, the red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) and the juniper (/. communis, var. depressa) abound. In these pastures in Swampscott and Salem the dyer’s weed (Genzsta tinctoria), introduced by the early settlers, covers all the ground with its wonderful wealth of yellow blos- soms. A characteristic bush in all pastures and also introduced, is the Euro- pean barberry (Berberis vulgaris). Curious apple trees, dwarfed by the con- stant cropping of cattle so that they spread out only a foot or two above the ground, are common in all old pastures. Occasionally these trees reach such a breadth, that the long neck and tongue of the cow cannot reach the middle, at which point the tree sprouts upwards undisturbed. Apple orchards, many very ancient, are to be found everywhere in the County. Of the deciduous trees may be mentioned the following: white birch (Betula populifolia), most abundant in all old fields; canoe birch (B. papyri- fera), red birch (B. nigra), yellow birch (B. lutea), sweet birch (B. lenta), much less common; American beech (Fagus ferruginea), chestnut (Castanea dentata), red oak (Quercus rubra), black oak (Q. velutina), white oak (Q. alba), swamp white oak (Q. dzcolor), American elm (Udmus americana), butternut (Juglans cinerea), shag-bark hickory (Carya alba), swamp hickory (C. amara), pig-nut hickory (C. porcina), white ash (Fraxinus americana), red maple (Acer vubrum), silver maple (A. saccharinum), sugar maple (A. saccharum), striped maple (A. pennsylvanicum), black locust (Robinia pseudacacia), hop hornbeam (Ostrya virginica), wild black or rum cherry (Prunus serotina). In the deep woods of Essex and Manchester, as well as on the exposed hillsides of Cape Ann, the mountain laurel (Ka/mia Jatifolia) abounds, and the mayflower (Epig@a repens) is found in a few places. In the deep swamps of Gloucester is still found the small magnolia (Magnolia glauca), from which the settlement of Magnolia takes its name. This southern plant does not occur again north of Long Island. The white cedar (Chamecyparis spheroidea) already mentioned, chinquapin oak (Quercus prinoides), sassafras (Sassafras officinale), and tupelo (JVyssa sylvatica), all more or less characteristically southern species, are also found in the County. On the other hand, there are several stations for the red or Norway pine (Pinus resinosa), some of these interesting trees of the North being of con- Io MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. siderable size. One I measured near the Ipswich River, in Topsfield, was 52 inches in circumference, four feet from the ground. The black spruce (Picea nigra), hobble-bush (Viburnum alnifolium), striped maple (Acer pennsylvanicum), mountain maple (A. spicatum), cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idea, var. minus), round-leaved violet (Viola rotundifolia), twin-flower (Linn@a borealis), yellow clintonia (Clintonia borealis), and three-toothed cinque-foil (Potentzlla triden- tata), all northern species, are also to be found in Essex County. Some fine specimens of canoe birches (Betula papyrifera), reminders of the Maine woods, are growing near the Ipswich River. Thus in the flora there are extensions of both the Canadian and the Upper Austral into the Transition zone, the chief zone of the County. The most characteristic tree of the old towns is the American elm (U/mus americana). Were many are to be seen of great age and exceeding beauty, arching the streets and filling the squares and commons. It was and still is deservedly the most popular tree for street planting in Essex County, and its prevalence in the towns determines to a certain extent their avifauna. The avifauna as well as the flora of Essex County is chiefly that character- istic of the Transition zone but there are extensions, both from the Upper Austral and from the Canadian zones, of birds that regularly or occasionally breed in the County. Of the Upper Austral zone there are three representatives that breed regularly, namely, Orchard Oriole, White-eyed Vireo, and Yellow-breasted Chat, and this is the most northern limit of their range except, perhaps, in the case of the White-eyed Vireo, which is stated to breed rarely at Manchester, N. H. The Florida Gallinule has been taken once late in the spring when it was believed to be breeding. The Black-throated Bunting formerly bred in this region, even as lately as 1873. There are also a number of other Austral birds that have been recorded as stragglers within the limits of the County, namely, Royal Tern, American Egret, Little Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, King Rail, Purple Gallinule, American Avocet, Black-necked Stilt, Wilson’s Plover, Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Swallow-tailed Kite, Barn Owl, Seaside Sparrow, Cardinal, Summer Tanager, Worm-eating Warbler, Mockingbird, Car- olina Wren, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. There are a number of birds that regularly breed in the County that may be classed as characteristic of the sub-Canadian zone, namely, Hairy Wood- pecker, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, Nashville Warbler, Black- burnian Warbler, and Hermit Thrush. The Alder Flycatcher, also a breeder here, is sometimes included in this group. 1F, W. Batchelder: Proc. Manchester Inst. Arts and Sci., vol. 1, p. 133, 1900. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. II Of the true Canadian zone there are the following representatives : Cana- dian Warbler, Winter Wren, Brown Creeper, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Golden-crowned Kinglet. This extension of breeding birds both from the north and from the south adds to the interest of this region. As the County is on the seacoast it lies of course in one of the great high- ways of bird migration, and the region of the ocean, the beaches, the dunes, and the salt marshes all attract their special birds, and will be considered in the following chapters. 12 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. CHAPTER II. THE OCEAN AND ITS BIRDS. “And having took a view of Ipswich I found it to be situated by a fine River; .... it issueth forth into a large Bay, (where they fish for Whales,) due east over against the Island of Sholes, a great place of fishing ; the Mouth of that River is barr’d.”—Joun Dunron, “Letters Srom New England,” 1686. Tue birds of the ocean can be studied from the shore or from boats. Provided with a good pair of binoculars and a telescope, the observer will find the study of these birds from the shore most fascinating, using the binoculars as the low power with which the field is swept, and the telescope as the high power with which the individual birds are examined. With a little practice, one can easily find and follow a single bird, even on the wing, with a good telescope, and its advantages will well repay the difficulties of its use. From the top of a high sand dune or rock close to the shore, the hours slip by rapidly at this inter- esting sport. So swiftly do many of the water birds swim and dive, that the water may suddenly be filled with them, where only a few minutes before there were none to be seen. For some years I have found this use of the telescope of the greatest value, and often am able to make out the colors and exact markings of birds that, even through a pair of strong prismatic binoculars, appear merely as dark silhouettes. In addition to the markings, one can note many of the motions and habits, which are displayed without restraint, owing to the distance of the observer. My telescope is 29 inches long and magnifies 20 diameters. I use it even for birds on the beach. In gradually stalking a bird I sometimes use first the telescope, and on nearer approach, the binoculars, while it sometimes happens that I finally get so near that the binoculars cannot be focussed on the bird, and I watch it almost at my feet with the naked eye. When armed with a telescope, one can approach a bird much more closely than when a gun is the weapon! With the telescope, except for short glimpses, a firm support or rest is very desirable, and a stick can be carried for this purpose. The bird-watcher on the shores of Essex County often sees the dark heads of the harbor seals (Poca vitulina) raised above the water as they swim by, peering about inquisitively, and sometimes for a moment mistakes them for BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 13 waterfowl. The seals collect on the sand bars sometimes to the number of forty or fifty in a herd. Occasionally a whale is seen spouting, generally the finback species (Balenoptera physalus), and on one occasion, November 13, 1904, while watching sea birds from a boat off the end of Cape Ann, I saw a white whale (Delphinapterus leucas) show his snowy back several times above the dark waters. The visits of this arctic species are, however, very exceptional. Two other mammals are also not infrequently seen in this coast region: the har- bor porpoise or “ puffing pig” (Phocena phocena) and the bottle-nosed dolphin (Turstops truncatus). Fishing is carried on all along the coast with its necessary accompaniment of “gurry ”’ —fish entrails, oil, and so forth, which attract such sea birds as Shear- waters, Petrels, Gulls, and Terns. The cod (Gadus morrhua) and the lobster (Homarus americanus) are the chief spoils from these waters. Squid (Ommastre- phes illecebrosus) are also caught by the fishermen for bait, and are the favorite food of the Shearwaters. During the autumn months from September to early December, great multitudes of herring (C/upea harengus) crowd the waters of Ipswich Bay and the tidal estuaries, coming in to spawn. These are pursued both by day and by night with seines and hand-nets. At night the fisherman lights a torch of cotton waste, wet with kerosene oil, in the bow of his boat, and the fish, dazzled and attracted by the light, are scooped up by the barrelful. The dancing lights dot the waterways in the marshes and the waters of the bay. In these months the Gannet is attracted by the same game, and one can often follow the course of a school of herring off the shore by the flocks of Gannets soaring above them and plunging unerringly into their midst. Although there are no birds belonging to the present group that breed along the coast of Essex County, with the exception of the Black Duck and the Common Tern, yet numerous ocean birds are to be found along the coast at all seasons of the year, even in midsummer. This latter fact may be explained in one or more of the following ways: Ist, the long duration of the migratory periods for waterfowl; 2d, the excursions from nearby rookeries of these strong flyers, even in the breeding season ; 3d, the fact that immature and barren birds may spend the entire summer ; 4th, the occurrence of cripples remaining after the shooting season; 5th, in the case of the Shearwaters and Wilson’s Petrel, the summer here corresponds to their winter or non-breeding season. The long duration of the migratory period for different species or even for one species of waterfowl is often not appreciated and differs in this respect from that of the land bird migrants, many of which often pass through in a few weeks. This period is longer in the autumn than in the spring, and may extend from early in July to late in December, or even into January. The spring migration, on the other hand, extends from late in February to the middle of June, but many birds that are common in the autumn for several months are generally 14 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. seen for but a few weeks in the spring, and in much smaller numbers. A strik- ing instance of this is that of the Scoters, so numerous in the fall in their southern flight, streaming along the coast in multitudes, but represented in the spring by comparatively small flocks. In the spring the Golden Plover and the Lesser Yellow-legs go north by the Mississippi Valley route and are not seen here. Many of the other shore birds that are so common and tarry so long on our shores from early in July to November, are’seen going north in but scant numbers during the last two weeks of May. The appearance of Leach’s Petrels in storms near the shore in the latter part of June, or the sudden increase in the number of Herring Gulls at this sea- son to obtain fish thrown up on the beaches, suggests extended excursions from the breeding places of these birds on the nearby coast of Maine. These excur- sions, although rare in the case of the Petrel, are, I believe, the rule with the strong-flying Gull. This matter will be discussed later in the annotations on the Herring Gull. That numerous immature and a smaller number of adult Herring Gulls pass the summer on the Essex County coast without breeding, is a well known fact. This is also true to a much less extent of the Great Black- backed Gull, of the Scoters, and the Red-breasted Merganser, as well as a num- ber of shore birds. Some of these birds are cripples, surviving from the winter’s shooting. In the country away from the ocean, a stormy day with rain is of course unfavorable for the ornithologist, but such days are often the most interesting at the seashore; many waterfowl are then seen to best advantage, and often only on those days. For example, the Petrels are almost never seen close to the shore except in fogs or in stormy weather. At such times they may be found gleaning the waves close to the beach, now and then actually sweeping over the sand in their graceful, swallow-like flight. The Scoters, Golden-eyes, and Shelldrakes, which during pleasant weather feed off the shore and fly but little, are often to be found restlessly flying close to the beach or over it, and feeding inside the breakers close to the shore. Phalaropes, although also occa- sionally seen in pleasant weather, are more apt to be found near the shore during storms. Then there is always the possibility of seeing other rare water or shore birds driven in from the outside course. The Gulls and Terns are seen to the best advantage during violent north- easters, in regard both to numbers and the beauty of their flight as they soar into the teeth of the gale, or gracefully glide and circle before it. The bird-lover, clad in good oilskins and sou’wester, welcomes a fierce storm at the seashore as a day of unusual interest and great possibilities. A disadvantage on these days is the inability to use glasses, but the nearness of the birds partly makes up for this. It is unnecessary to speak of the glories of the sea BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 15 itself, the surf and spray and driving scuds of rain or snow, during these storms. Old Ocean is then at his best from the point of view of the man on shore. In studying the birds from a boat, it is of great advantage to use fish livers and other fish entrails to attract Petrels, Shearwaters, Jaegers, Gulls, and Terns. The throwing overboard of these oily substances from fishing boats often brings close at hand birds of which before there was no sign. The ocean birds of Essex County that are here only in summer are the Greater and the Sooty Shearwaters and Wilson’s Petrel, visitors from their distant breeding places in the southern seas, and the Common Tern which still breeds off the coast on at least one island. The Black Duck in summer generally prefers marshes both salt and fresh, to the sea, although it occasion- ally alights there. The Shearwaters are rarely to be seen near the land except at the end of Cape Ann, and there generally four or five miles at least from the shore. The Wilson’s Petrel, as before remarked, is often seen close to the shore in foggy or stormy weather, on both the sandy and the rocky coasts. In fair weather, unless a great amount of food is thrown over from fishing boats, these birds are only to be seen farther out at sea. The Herring Gull, although not breeding here, is a conspicuous feature of the ocean region in summer, and, as already explained, there are a number of other Gulls and Ducks to be found throughout this season. The great flocks of Herring Gulls, numbering, even in June and July, sometimes two or three thousand, are chiefly to be found in Ipswich Bay especially about Ipswich and Coffin’s Beaches and their outlying sand bars. These birds also alight on the small rocky islands, the Salvages, off the end of Cape Ann. In winter these rocks are often covered with Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, while the rocks themselves are painted white with their droppings. During the winter are to be found the Holboell’s Grebe and the Horned Grebe, rarely the Pied-billed Grebe, which prefers fresh water ; the Loon and the Red-throated Diver, the Puffin, Black Guillemot, Briinnich’s Murre, Razor-billed Auk, and Dovekie. The Horned Grebe, the Loon, and the Red- throated Diver are often abundant off the sand beaches, but they also fre- quent the rocky shores, while the Black Guillemot appears to prefer the rocky shores alone, choosing especially the promontories of Cape Ann, Marblehead, and Nahant. The Puffin, Briinnich’s Murre, Razor-billed Auk, and Dovekie also prefer these latter rocky headlands projecting far out into the sea but all at times venture nearer rocky and sandy shores. The Herring Gull, Kittiwake, and Great Black-backed Gull are the common winter Gulls. In the Duck fam- ily, the Red-breasted Merganser, the Black Duck,— chiefly the Red-legged subspecies,— Whistler or Golden-eye, Old Squaw, and the three Scoters are all 16 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. abundant and characteristic of these waters. A few American Eiders are to be found, but only off the exposed rocky stations. Another winter bird that cer- tainly deserves to be put in the class of birds of the ocean, as with the rarest exceptions it is found while with us on the rocks and rocky islands only off the coast, is the Purple Sandpiper. During the migrations most of the winter birds are more abundant. In addition, may be seen the Gannets, sometimes in large numbers, making a mag- nificent spectacle as they bombard the water in their pursuit of fish; also the Double-crested and Common Cormorants, the former in reality by far the more common. These weird birds are sometimes to be seen in considerable numbers flying along the coast or swimming on the water. Again their strange forms can be descried perched on spar buoys or on rocks. Leach’s Petrels also pass in the migration to and from their breeding places on the Maine coast and beyond, but are rarely seen. The Red and the Northern Phalaropes may also be included as birds of this ocean region. The three species of Jaegers, the Ring-billed and the Bonaparte’s Gulls are also migrants. Of the Terns, the Common, Arctic, Black, and Caspian may be mentioned as regular migrants, omitting a number of Gulls and Terns given in the Annotated List as rare or accidental. As before stated, the Common Tern also breeds here. The Canada Goose and Brant as well as a number of Ducks in addition to those enumerated above, such as the Greater Scaup and Bufflehead, are also to be found in the migrations. The autumnal flight of these birds, particularly of the Scoters, is one of the striking features of this shore. Duck-shooting off the coast in Essex County is chiefly devoted to the pursuit of the three species of Scoters or Coot as they are called, and is every- where spoken of as “cooting.’ During the fall migrations, especially in east- erly weather, these birds sometimes pass along the coast in countless numbers. When the wind is strong from the west the birds often keep well outside. The gunners anchor their boats before light in line across the course of the flight, putting out flocks of wooden decoys, and for this purpose crude blocks of wood painted black, are all that is necessary. Sometimes bladders painted black are used. A sharp whistle or loud shout has the effect of deflecting the flock of Scoters down towards the gunner. Gunners generally make a low whistling noise to attract the birds, and the notes of Old Squaws also are imitated when they are seen coming. On some days in the middle of the season the gunner tosses about in his “dory ” for hours without firing a shot. At other times the shooting is fast and furious, but even with the heavy charges and large shot, comparatively few birds are killed, such is their tenacity of life, the swiftness of their flight, and the protective power of their thick coat of feathers. Wounded birds dive at BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 17 once, sometimes from the wing, and the pursuit of the cripples, as they are called, is often in vain. In addition to the Scoters, Red-breasted Mergansers or “Shelldrakes”’ as they are universally called, and Old Squaws are often shot, and occasionally American Golden-eye Ducks or “ Whistlers,” and Scaups or ‘ Bluebills,” but the two latter generally fight shy of the boats and fly high. 18 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. CHAPTER III. THE SAND BEACHES AND THEIR BIRDS. “At full of tide their bolder shore Of sun-bleached sand the waters beat; At ebb, a smooth and glistening floor They touched with light, receding feet.” WuitTIrEr, “The Tent on the Beach.” Tue four long sand beaches on the northeastern coast line of the County are favorite resting and feeding places for birds. This is particularly true of Ipswich and Coffin’s Beaches which are broad and flat, and are bordered in places by sand bars. The beach at Plum Island is for the most part of a different character, shelving abruptly into deep water. Although the number of marine invertebrates on beaches is much smaller than on a rocky shore, some live in the sand, and many more—some from deeper water, some from the nearby rocky coasts,— are cast up on the beach, and serve as food for Gulls, Crows, and other birds. A few of the common and important marine invertebrates found on the beaches are the following: finger sponge (Chalinopsilla oculata), jelly-fishes (Aurelia flavidula and Cyanea arctica), under the huge disk of the latter being often found smal] Crustacea (Ayperia). The common clam-worm (/Vereis) burrows in the beaches but is more abundant in the protected inlets and creeks. Starfishes (Asterias vul- garis) and brittle-stars (Ophiopholts aculeata) are found commonly among the rhizoids of the Laminarta. The sea-urchin (Strongylocentrotus drébachiensis), an animal washed from rocky stations, is sometimes found, while the sand-dollar (Echinarachnius parma) is common near low-water mark, slightly buried in the sand, revealing itself by a circular prominence. The hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus) occu- pies old snail shells at low-water mark but is more common in the inland creeks. The green crab (Carcinus me@nas) belongs south of Cape Cod, but it appeared on this coast in 1901 and increased rapidly, not only on the shores, but especially in the estuaries and creeks. The severe winter of 1903-4 has appar- ently exterminated it here, for none could be found during the following sum- mer. Rock crabs (Cancer irvroratus and C. borealis) abound, especially the BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 19 former, off the beaches. This species is found below low-water mark in great numbers and of large size. They are frequently left on the beach by the retreating tide where they burrow in the sand, generally leaving a slight promi- nence to show their whereabouts, and often a fissure, where their crafty eyes may be seen. Their efforts at concealment are often in vain, for the Herring Gull routs them out, and feasts on the dainty morsels. Beach fleas (Orchestia agilis and Talorchestia longicornis) abound, the latter high up on the beach, the former between tides. They devour any organic matter that is cast up on the beach, and are in turn devoured by the birds, especially the shore birds, which grow fat on them. The scud (Gammarus locusta) is another amphipod of similar functions, swarming in the decaying seaweed. The horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), a strange archaic beast, is abundant in the tidal estu- aries, but is not uncommonly thrown up on the outside beaches. Here it makes an extraordinary track as it advances, but frequently attempts to wait in safety for the next tide by burrowing in the sand. Of molluscs, large round snails (Poles heros and P duplicata) are especially abundant, and the strange collar-like sand rings containing their eggs are common. When the animal is advancing over the sand with its foot stretched to the full capacity, one wonders how it will ever force itself into the shell again. This, however, is quickly done, with a great outpouring of water. The Gulls and Crows are particularly fond of these snails. The European peri- winkle (Lztorina (ttorea) is found everywhere now, and may be called the English Sparrow among molluscs. Then there are also the more delicate native periwinkles (ZL. rudis and L. palliata), Nassa trivitata, whose pretty and delicate shells often line the beaches, and whelks (Buccinum undatum),. The edible mussel (AZytzlus edulis) of Europe abounds in great beds off the beaches and in the estuaries, and is much appreciated by the Ducks and Gulls, but not yet by the native American. The deep-water mussel (Modiolus modiolus) is thrown up with attached Lawznaria. The quohog, our northern little-neck clam (Cyclas tslandica), and the giant clam (Spisula solidissima) inhabit the sand beaches at and below low-water mark, and are often thrown up high on the beach. The razor-fish (Avszs directus) is thrown up scantily on the beaches but abounds in the tidal estuaries. The squid (Ommastrephes illecebrosus) are sometimes cast up in great numbers on the beaches, or found close to the shore whither they have been chased by fish. The clam (Mya arenaria), such an important article of food for man and of bait for fishes in Essex County, occurs in the protected sand- and mudflats away from the open sea. Then there are numerous bony fishes and sharks whose dead bodies are always to be found on the beaches. At times these occur in thousands, the cod 20 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. (Gadus morrhua), haddock (Melanogrammus e@glefinus), and pollock (Pollachius virens) rushing to their doom on the beaches in pursuit of small herring (Clupea harengus) which also beach themselves, or to escape the pursuing dog-fishes (Squalus acanthias). The dog-fishes in their impetuosity often beach themselves, and I have seen a dozen within a space of a few yards on the sand. This fish has curious spines in front of its dorsal fins that resemble the upper mandibles of Terns’ bills.1 I have sometimes in the evening seen the bony fishes men- tioned above feebly flopping on the edge of the beach in the water, apparently anxious to get onto dry land. Besides these fish there are two curious monsters, both of which are frequently cast up by the waves. These are a skate (Raza), allied to the sharks, sometimes three or four feet long, and the angler or fishing- frog (Lophius piscatorius), a large-headed bony fish. The fish are eagerly eaten by the Gulls and Crows, although the tough skins of the sharks— dog-fishes and skates make it necessary to wait until decay has done its work. Innumerable insects, especially beach flies (Fucellia fucorum, Celopa frigida, and others), are attracted by all this carrion, and these in turn bring Swallows and other Passerine birds. Besides the ever-present beach flies, a tiger beetle (Cicindela hirticollis) is very common on the beaches, and many insects that have dropped exhausted into the water are thrown up on the shore. This is strikingly the case with the hordes of ants that during the nuptial flights in September sometimes line the beaches in windrows for miles. The common seaweeds thrown up on the beaches are: sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca), rockweed (Fucus vesiculosus), red seaweeds (Rhodophycee), Irish moss (Chondrus crispus), and devil’s aprons (Laminaria). In the root-like attach- ments of the last-named to mussels and stones are often found small museums of marine invertebrates, all of which are appreciated by birds. The changing outline of the beaches is always an interesting study. Some twelve years ago a narrow sand spit extended northwest from the beach and parallel to it near the mouth of the Ipswich River. So narrow was this that I have shot over decoys placed at the water’s edge on both sides, building my blind in the middle. As this spit extended and broadened, the sea constantly throwing up more sand, and the wind seizing this and blowing it inland, the lagoon which it enclosed was gradually cut off, leaving only a narrow outlet, through which it filled and emptied at each tide. Its shores, being sheltered from the sea, abounded in the common clam (Mya arenaria), while only the sea 1See C. W. Townsend: “A Case of Mistaken Diagnosis,” Auk, vol. 20, p. 218, 1903. A spine of a dog-fish found in a shell heap was identified at Washington as the upper mandible of the Royal Tern! In this connection see Josselyn, “New-England’s Rarities,” 1672: “The Dog-fish a ravenous Fish, upon whose Back grows a Thorn two or three Inches long, that helps the Toothach, scarifying the Gums therewith.” BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 21 clam (Spisula solidisstma) was found outside on the open beach. From a narrow sand spit enclosing a large lagoon, this has become a broad elevated sand plain, and the lagoon, much shrunken in area and depth by the constantly blowing sand, was finally, in 1903, so cut off from the sea that weeks went by without a new supply of salt water, and the clams were in imminent danger of becoming subfossils. In 1904, the lagoon has become but a small stagnant pool, and will soon be entirely obliterated. On this plain of sand, some 300 yards broad, clumps of beach grass have begun to appear, and the blowing sand which col- lects around them forms the beginning of dunes. It is interesting to note that old Capt. Ellsworth, the keeper of Ipswich Light up to his death a few years ago, used to say that when he took charge in the sixties, he had talked from the lighthouse with men in boats on the water. The lighthouse is now some 350 yards from the high-water mark, and very much farther from the shore in the direction of the range light. A map of Ipswich dated 1846 shows a much farther extension of Castle Hill to the north with a basswood tree at the foot. Here now is a ragged gravel cliff with numerous boulders at its base. At the mouth of the Essex River on the Ipswich side, the sea is cutting into the dunes exposing sections of wind- deposited strata. There are many birds that are characteristic of a sandy seabeach, some of which, such as certain of the Lzmzcole or shore birds, are rarely to be found elsewhere. There are also numerous birds of the ocean that are at home on beaches, such as certain Ducks, Gulls, and Terns. Then there are birds of the marsh that at times frequent the beach, namely, Herons. In addition to this are a number of land birds, that come to the beach, sometimes in large numbers, for the food that is to be found there; these are appropriately named by Dixon “littoral land birds.”” Of the shore birds it is probable that all may at times alight on the beach, but there are all degrees among them, from those that are almost never seen except on the beach, to those whose appearance there may be considered accidental. This will be noted later under each species, but a few general remarks here may be of interest. Among the Plover, the Black-bellied, Semipalmated, and Piping Plovers are above all birds of the beach, although the first two are occasionally found in the marshes, while the last-named rarely strays from the beach and the adjoining sand dunes. The Golden Plover, although at times found on the wet sands, is much more likely to hunt for food on the dry sands above the highest tides, or still farther inland, while the Killdeer generally avoids the beach altogether, preferring the fields. The occurrence of the Wilson’s Snipe, Solitary and Bartramian Sandpipers on the beach would be purely accidental, although I once saw a Bartramian Sand- piper there, and I have found the Solitary Sandpiper at a brackish pool on 22 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. the upper beach. The Eskimo Curlew and Buff-breasted Sandpiper are both birds of the hills. Both the Greater and the Lesser Yellow-legs, unless they can find a pool left ‘by the tide away from the surf line, are rarely found on the beach. The same is true of the Pectoral Sandpiper, while the Dowitcher with its long bill, typical of the oozy marsh, is more often than these found on the beach. The Purple Sandpiper, although a bird of rocky islands, I once found on the beach at Ipswich. The Spotted Sandpiper and Turnstone are both fond of pebbly beaches, but both of these birds, particularly the latter, are also fre- quenters of the sandy shores. The Spotted Sandpiper, however, much as it loves the wet and muddy places in the marsh, appears to prefer on the beach the dry upper parts, where it finds numerous insects. The Hudsonian Curlew, Willet, White-rumped, Red-backed, and Stilt Sandpipers, and Hudsonian God- wit all frequent the beach, although all may be found in the soft mud sloughs of the marshes as well. The sandy-colored Semipalmated Sandpiper is a fre- quenter of the beach, while its browner cousin, the Least Sandpiper, decidedly prefers the marsh, but they visit each other’s hunting-grounds at times. Of all beach-loving birds I would place the Knot first, —a typical bird of the sandy shores. The Sanderling or Beach-bird, as its names imply, is also a bird typi- cal of the sandy shore, but it occasionally straggles into the sloughs of the marsh. It not infrequently happens that the beaches abound in shore birds in the late evening, but before daybreak are largely deserted ; and although the diurnal migrations of the Lzmzcole, with the exception of the Woodcock, Wilson’s Snipe, and Spotted Sandpiper, are noticeable, it is evident that all may migrate also by night. The lighthouse observations likewise bear this out. The Phalaropes are ocean wanderers, but they at times deign to appear like ordinary shore birds walking on the beach. Of other ocean birds the immense flocks of Herring Gulls to be found resting on the beach at Ipswich at all seasons of the year, are most interesting. In the summer when great numbers of dead fish line the beach for miles, the Herring Gulls gather from all about and act the scavenger to good purpose. I have seen a line of these birds at Ipswich extending over 300 measured yards of sand with from 3 to 20 or more in a yard. This means from 2000 to 3000 of the birds at a moderate estimate. From the shelter of the grass or a pile of sticks in the sand dunes one may watch these birds for a long time with interest. If shooting were entirely prohibited in this region the birds would no doubt become as tame and as easily studied as the Western Gull on the beaches at San Francisco. As it is now, our Gulls know the carrying power of a gun and keep well out of range. The other Gulls and Terns commonly frequenting this beach region are the BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 23 Great Black-backed Gull, Bonaparte’s Gull, and Common Tern. The Ring- billed Gull and Kittiwake, and Arctic, Black, and Caspian Terns are less com- monly seen. I once saw a Gannet resting on Ipswich Beach, and on another occasion three Double-crested Cormorants. The former of these birds generally keeps well outside the beaches and the latter prefers to rest on rocks or spar buoys. Of the Ducks, I have seen the Black Duck, both the smaller and the Red- legged subspecies, the Red-breasted Merganser, and Surf Scoter resting on the beach. Canada Geese and Brant sometimes alight on the beaches during the migrations, The Black Duck, mostly the Red-legged subspecies, frequents the beach in large numbers during the early spring. Masses of from 500 to 1000 or more of these birds closely huddled together present a most inter- esting sight, and the noise of their wings when they spring into the air is not easily forgotten. Doubtless the prints of many other Ducks’ feet have been made on the sandy beaches of Essex County but the records have been effaced. The study of the marks in the sand is fascinating and many of them are clearly cut and easily interpreted. For example, the wanderings of a flock of Sandpipers are easily traced by the footmarks and by the borings of the bill, except where the lapping waves have obliterated them. The laborious runs of the Herring Gulls on calm days in order to get impetus enough to rise above the ground, are clearly shown, and their methods of alighting are all clear to one who looks. On disturbing a pair of Shelldrake, or Red-breasted Mergansers, one calm day from their comfortable nap on the beach, I found in the sand-record that they were obliged to stride forward twenty-nine yards before they could push the beach away from them, the claw marks becoming fainter and fainter. Their strides were three feet long and the duck led the drake in the race. In this case they were unable to head for the little wind there was stirring, for I was on their windward side and the ocean was to leeward, so they were doubly handicapped. If the wind had been blowing harder, they would undoubtedly have risen against it,— towards me. The case of the Black Duck is very dif- ferent. Their leisurely walk with short steps and toes turned in, is easily traced in the sand to where the track ends abruptly as their powerful wings take them straight up. The final footprints are not perceptibly deeper than those that precede, showing that it is their wings and not the push of their feet on which they depend. The prints made by the Cormorants on taking wing show that they push the sand with both feet close together instead of running or striding as do the Mergansers and the Gulls. The marks of the feet of the Great Blue and the Night Herons are also found and the birds themselves can often be seen. The Green Heron occa- 24 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. sionally visits the beach, but I have never found the Bittern there. The Herons prefer a lagoon on the upper part of the beach mostly cut off from the outside sea, but they also frequent the outer beach itself, the Night Herons visiting it at night in large numbers. Of the land birds the Hawks are perhaps the most interesting. Some of these appear to choose this region especially during the migrations, Fish Hawks, Duck Hawks, and many of the smaller species being often seen there. I have two Duck Hawks in my collection that took advantage of the skill of the sportsman, and pounced down on some hapless shore birds he had just shot, only to be slain in turn, themselves. Occasionally the Hawks swoop at decoys. The Bald Eagle on rare occasions visits the shore and is an imposing sight as he stands on a peaked dune close to the beach. From here he descends to pick up the dead and decaying fish with which the beach is strewn. Of the Passerine birds, the Crows are to be found on the beach, often in large numbers, at all seasons, sharing with the Herring Gulls the duties of scavengers. They are more common there in winter than in summer, for their range of hunting-ground is more curtailed at that season and the beach is always bountiful in supplying food. The number of Passerine birds that accidentally alight on the beach may be considerable, but there are only a few that habitually frequent it. These are in summer the Kingbird, Bronzed Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Savanna Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Barn, Eave, Bank, and Tree Swallows, and Robin. All of these visit the beach frequently for the abundance of insects to be found just above high-water mark or those attracted by the decomposing fish and sea- weed, or for the small crustaceans. All four species of Swallows are abundant, coursing up and down the beaches and occasionally alighting there, not only during the migrating season when they gather in large numbers, but also in the early summer. The Tree and Barn Swallows are the most abundant and next to them is the Eave Swallow. In the autumn come the large flocks of migrat- ing Pipits, which frequently walk on the upper beach. The winter birds are the Horned Larks and Snow Buntings, which are often found in large flocks close to the water’s edge and add greatly to the pleasure of a walk there at that season. The Lapland Longspurs are also to be found, and the Ipswich Sparrow delights in the beach itself, appearing to pick up plenty of food not only on the upper beach, but also on the débris cast up by the waves close to the water’s edge. On January 24th, 1904, on Ipswich Beach, in the small compass of some ten yards square, I found ten Horned Larks, four Snow Buntings, two Lapland Longspurs, and one Ipswich Sparrow feeding — an interesting collection for a winter’s day. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 25 It is interesting to note that, like the Lmicolg, all of these birds walk or run habitually rather than hop, with the sole exception of the Kingbird, which almost never uses its legs for locomotion on the ground. Even the Swallows waddle short distances over the sand, using the Jegs in succession. Although it is the case that the Savanna and especially the Song Sparrow hop, they also execute a rapid walk or run, while the Ipswich Sparrow is typically a walker. Before leaving this delightful region, interesting at all seasons and in all weathers, I must speak of two other sources of ornithological interest on the beach. First, the dead birds that are found there shot by man, or cast up by the sea sometimes without sign of injury —some of them sea birds that appear to have died of starvation. My cabinet contains a number of these that have been saved from the scavenging Crows and Gulls. The other source of interest is the gunner wandering along the beach or ensconced in a hole in the sand. Him we hail as friend and fellow, inquire the luck, lament that so few birds are flying, learn perhaps some bit of gunner’s bird-lore, and finally examine his bag possibly to find a rare specimen. Shooting of all shore birds is allowed in Massachusetts after July 15th, and the birds great and small are incessantly persecuted during their migration south. In the spring migration, however, the shore birds are protected as the close season begins on March rst. On the beach, the birds are usually shot from “blinds,” or “booths” as they are sometimes called. These are screens made of driftwood and seaweed, and a hole is generally dug in the sand in which the gunner ensconces himself. At times screens of cloth supported on stakes driven in the sand are used. To bring the birds within range as they fly by, or to induce them to alight, decoys of tin or of wood are used, generally arranged like a flock of birds, with their heads pointing to the wind. Occasionally large clam shells are stuck in the sand and at a distance simulate very well a flock of Peep. Much depends on the skill of the gunner in calling down the birds by cunningly imitating their notes, and by his care in keeping concealed and absolutely motionless until the moment that he delivers his fire. It is very difficult for a bird or a man to distinguish a gunner clad in old shooting clothes, which match in color the sand and sea wrack, provided the gunner keeps motionless. The least movement on his part at once attracts the eye, and the wary birds sheer off. As illustrating this prin- ciple, gunners sometimes lie quietly on the sand without any cover, jumping up and shooting at the last moment. Few old birds, comparatively, are shot by stalking on the large beaches, as, owing to the absence of cover, they are apt to keep out of gunshot, while young birds sometimes allow of close approach. Distances on broad beaches are very difficult to judge, and many birds are fired at out of range. The birds themselves are generally good judges of distance. 26 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. Twenty-five years ago I found the shore birds as wild and difficult to approach at Coffin’s Beach as they are now, while on smaller beaches where they were less molested, as at Magnolia, they were comparatively tame, and this is the case at the present time at the protected Lynn Beach. It is to be hoped that the season for shore bird shooting may be deferred till August 15th or, better still, to September 1st. This would save many birds, especially the adults, which are most needed to continue the race. This seems to me more practicable than to try to put the smaller birds on the protected list. Many a Peep appears to the excited gunner as large as a Turnstone, and if shooting is allowed at all, small birds will be shot in the absence of large ones. The methods detailed above can be used by the field-glass hunter as well as by the gunner, and even to an old sportsman the field-glass method once tried has attractions which in many respects outweigh those of the gun. The birds appear to recognize the friendliness of the bird-lover, and often display at close range many interesting traits that are lost to the man who shoots on sight. In easterly storms during the autumn flight, the gunner conceals himself in blinds on projecting sand bars, or lies quietly, clad in oilskins that match the sand, and shoots at the Scoters, Shelldrakes, and Black Ducks that at these times often fly low over the beach. Birds that are merely winged drop on the sand and are easily caught, while on the water the chances for their escape are always good. Wounded Ducks and also Gulls on the beach strive to reach the water, while wounded shore birds in the water swim for land. In winter the ice piled up by the waves on the beaches is used as a blind. Both in midwinter and in midsummer the beach is a constant source of interest to the ornithologist. On January 4th, 1904, I was on Ipswich Beach at daybreak while it was still too dark to distinguish colors. The cold which was severe, 7° below zero, was much intensified by a strong northwest wind. The mouth of the Ipswich River inside the bar was filled with broken and crushing ice blocks. This pack ice extended along the beach for over a mile and the upper edge of the beach itself was piled with ice blocks smoothed over with frozen spray. Outside the ice the sea was boisterous and appeared to be boiling. The steam from the water, which was warm in comparison with the air, rising in great clouds and driven by the wind, formed almost a fog bank. On the landward side the peaks of the sand dunes, harried by the northwest wind, streamed mingled snow and sand. From the hills and fields inland the gale blew a continuous cloud of fine snow, stripping the ground bare in places and piling up huge drifts in the lee of trees and walls. Farther inland the marshes were beautiful with great blocks of ice thrown about in wild confusion, and threaded by numerous creeks all filled with ice, crushed and rumpled by the BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 24 great pressure of wind and tide. Such a scene and such a season would not at first thought appear to promise much of ornithological interest. The very con- trary was indeed the fact. While it was still quite dark the birds of the short Arctic days, the Snow Buntings and the Horned Larks, could be heard flying over to feed on the upper beach or in the fields or dunes on such grass-stalks as projected above the snow. On this winter’s day the sun rose at 7.20 and these birds were stirring at 6.30 a.m. The Horned Lark and the Snow Bunting are easily distinguished in the daytime by their plumage, but the light was so poor at this hour that the birds could be told apart only by their call notes. Over the rough ice and water gaps which lead up the Ipswich River, Ducks soon began to fly, heading straight into the wind. Bunches of a dozen to a hundred passed in rapid succession. With the dawn it was possible to see that Red-breasted Mergansers formed the larger part of these, hundreds of them going to feed in open places in Plum Island River and tributary creeks. Flocks of Whistlers were also common, and Surf Scoters; White-winged and a few American Scoters were also distinguished, although these for the most part flew back and forth outside. Herring Gulls in countless numbers flew about this icy waterway, occasionally alighting in a pool of open water or sitting quietly on the ice. Most of them followed the procession of Ducks to the inner waterways. On the wing in the fierce wind these Gulls, so sluggish on a calm summer’s day, were flying about as swiftly and gracefully as Terns. Every now and then Kittiwakes could be seen, to be distinguished from the Herring Gulls by their still greater agility, and when actually side by side, by their smaller size. Great Black-backed Gulls, birds of exceeding grace in a strong wind, delighted the eye. At five minutes of seven, a group of low- flying black forms could be seen, coming swiftly from the region of the pines among the sand dunes. They were the forerunners of the army of Crows that had been spending the night there. Silently they came, singly and in groups of ten or twenty forming two distinct streams: one towards the marshes, the other along the beach and the waters of the Ipswich River, to feed on the way and some of them to reach the great Plum Island and Rowley Marshes above. A third stream, few in numbers, quartered the sand dunes and sought the thickets on the side of Castle Hill. All flew close to the ground to avoid the wind, and also to search for food. On this account their course was not so direct, not “as the Crow flies,” as is the case on their return to roost after the day’s hunting. One of them pounced at a Herring Gull that was devouring a fish on the ice, but the Gull turned on him fiercely and the Crow beat a hasty retreat. From 6.55 to 7.30 there was an almost constant stream of Crows, — perhaps five or six hundred of them,— coming from the sand dunes. As many more may have gone in the other direction. 28 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. Descending to the beach from my elevated station on a dune at sunrise, I counted six Ipswich Sparrows within a distance of a hundred yards, and the Horned Larks and Snow Buntings could now be seen to better advantage, although with the temperature below zero and a strong wind, field-glass studies were not of the easiest. On returning along Castle Hill, Chickadees, Gold- finches, and Tree Sparrows greeted me from the thickets, and a flock of fifty or more Horned Larks were comfortably feeding on the sidehill, and with them about a dozen Lapland Longspurs. As I was surmounting a drift on snowshoes a beautiful cock Ring Pheasant flew out from some sheltering larches like a meteor. His blue metallic head, snow-white ring around the neck, and beautiful golden-brown back and tail were brilliantly lit up by the rising sun. A Flicker called from some willow trees, and a poor little frozen Myrtle Warbler, with wings and tail partly spread, was found in the path under a buttonwood tree. This was certainly not a bad record for an hour and a half before breakfast on the fourth of January in such weather,— some nineteen species and several thousand individuals. On the night of July 27th, 1904, the moon was full. The sun set at 7.10 Pp. mM. red and fiery. Herring Gulls, urged by the rising tide, left the bar at the mouth of the Ipswich River and flew to the southern end of Ipswich Beach where they settled in a great multitude, perhaps 2000 in all. On my walking in that direction at 7.20 Pp. M. they rose and flew over to Coffin’s Beach, where they apparently settled for the night. From 7.45 p. m. the Night Herons began to arrive, singly and in small groups, squawking as they flew, and spread themselves over the beaches and sandflats. Ring-neck and Piping Plover were heard calling but could not be seen in the dim light, and a Turnstone struck up its loud, sharp, rapidly repeated call, while from the grass back of the beach the song of the Savanna Sparrow could still be heard, and once or twice the song of the Northern Yellowthroat. Between 8 and 9 o'clock, the light of the moon being still obscured ;by the summer haze, the Plover and Turnstone were fre- quently calling and apparently flying about, while some Sanderlings and Semi- palmated Sandpipers were uttering their notes in a very conversational tone. At 8.30 Pp. M. I heard the sad and melodious call of the Black-bellied Plover, and at this time also I first noticed the calls of small birds that were passing over- head, the forerunners of the great autumn migrations. These were heard at intervals throughout the night until half past three in the morning. At 9.45 P. M. in the obscure light of the moon I could see a large bird running nimbly along the beach, occasionally raising its wings. As it took to the water and swam away I concluded it was a wounded Gull, and the next morning I found Gull’s tracks with a groove along the right side as if a broken wing had trailed. Later I saw the bird itself, a Herring Gull, and my inferences were BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 29 proved correct. At 11.15 P. M. some Spotted Sandpipers were calling in their anxious way, while the other shore birds were frequently heard. The Night Herons were constantly flying about and squawking, and walking along the edge of the waves. At 3 a.m. a Song Sparrow sang, and there was a slight suspicion of dawn; and again he sang at 3.20 when a faint glow was visible in the east, the moon being still bright. Robins began to sing at 3.50 A. M. and at this time six Night Herons could be seen flying north up the beach. Between 3.55 and 4 o'clock, 170 Night Herons passed in the same direction, flying along the edge of the water, a few going over my head as I lay on the upper edge of the beach. They were on their way to their day’s rest in the trees on the north side of Castle Hill. Their dark forms and flickering flight in the uncertain light made a weird effect which their hoarse squawking served to heighten. Immediately after they had passed, came the forerunners of a great army of Herring Gulls, appearing as dark as the Herons, but their pointed wings emphasized the differences between them. Before 4.15 I had counted 448 flying by me from Coffin’s Beach and three or four hundred more before 4.30 A. M., while a flock of over a thousand could be seen circling about and alighting on the sands exposed by the low tide off Coffin’s Beach. At 4.05 a flock of thirty Sanderlings flew by me going south and at 4.15 an Eagle, — an immature Bald Eagle no doubt, — flew close over my head searching for dead fish on the beach. At the same time a large flock of Barn Swallows came from their night roost, and a little later all four species, Tree, Barn, Cliff, and Bank Swallows, were winnowing the air in hundreds, the numbers being in the order named. The first Crow, not an early riser, called at 4.30 a.m., and a minute later the sun rose as red as it had gone down. 30 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. CHAPTER IV. THE SAND DUNES AND THEIR BIRDS. “Till the sand was blown and sifted Like great snowdrifts o’er the landscape, Heaping all the shore with sand dunes.” LoncGFELLow, “Hiawatha.” Prium Island, Ipswich and Coffin’s Beaches are backed by areas of sand dunes varying from a quarter to three quarters of a mile in breadth. These dunes have the same general characteristics, but the sand at Plum Island is coarse and yellowish, while at Ipswich and Coffin’s Beaches it is fine and white. As the Ipswich dunes are historic from the discovery there of the Ipswich Sparrow, a somewhat detailed description may not be out of place. The dunes here as well as at Coffin’s Beach have advanced within recent years, owing to the cutting down of protecting tree growths, covering fertile fields and burying orchards. One of these orchards at Ipswich, buried nearly to the tops of the branches, still keeps alive and blossoms amid the waste of sand. A large drumlin with a northwest and southeast axis, on the side of which the orchard grows, is so covered with sand that it is often mistaken for a huge dune. The appearance of projecting boulders, and lately, with the shifting sand, the reap- pearance of an ancient fence in a gravel foundation shows its true character. Sand dunes are often compared to waves of the sea in their appearance and motion. They do indeed resemble them with their steep and even overhanging crests, as if about to break, and their long sweeping slopes behind. This resemblance is made still more striking by the succession in parallel lines of these waves. There is one vital difference, however, between the water and the sand waves. Although they both advance, the advance of the sand waves is directly opposite to that of the water waves. The sharp, steep side of the dune is worn away by the wind, and streams out on the sweeping slope to leeward while the wave of the sea, driven by the same wind, pushes its steep crest in front. These waves of sand reach their fullest development at the southern end of the Ipswich dunes. Here they form a series of parallel waves, with their steep sides facing the north, that is, the direction from which come the fiercest winds. These waves have advanced southward in the middle more than at BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 31 either end, so that they describe the arcs of circles, and resemble a series of gigantic amphitheaters. One of these waves can easily be traced for some 1350 yards, or three quarters of a mile, stretching from the salt creek on the inside to the sea on the outside. The breadth of the waves varies from 40 to 200 yards, and the height from 20 to 50 feet. The highest points or peaks gener- ally have long ridges of sand to leeward of them towards the south, exactly the same formation as seen in snowdrifts. Every now and then there is a cross-valley, sloping gently upwards with wind-swept perpendicular sidewalls. Everywhere in cuttings on the sharp faces, the wind stratifications are visible, and are interesting for study. The strata generally dip slightly towards the south as the sand is left by the wind on the southern or leeward slope of the dunes, but they vary greatly and are irregularly superimposed. Their characteristics are brought out more strikingly by the wind cutting deeply into the loose strata leaving the compact ones in bold relief. The ripple marks made by the wind and at right angles to it on the surface of the dunes constitute another inter- esting feature. The dunes are restrained in their career by the binding power of the beach-grass (Ammophila arundinacea), whose roots extend in a network through the sand. These roots are exposed on the windward or retreating side of the dune and hang in festoons. On the leeward side, the grass struggles hard to keep above the accumulating sand. As a rule, owing to the binding grass, the changes in the dunes are slow. When the sand succeeds in breaking away from the grass, or in covering it up faster than it can push its way through, the dune sometimes advances with great rapidity, and a steep slope of soft sand is formed to leeward, where it is suddenly dropped by the wind. Occasionally a desert of several acres in extent of wind-swept sand, unhampered by grass, is formed among the dunes. As illustrating the effect of the wind over a region devoid of binding grass, there occurred during the severe winter of 1903-4 an immense drift of snow and sand, separate and mingled, encroaching on the north side of a growth of pitch pines in the Ipswich dunes. The snow was so protected by a layer of sand, from one to two feet in thickness, which reflected but did not so easily conduct the sun’s rays, that the snow became compact and crystalline, in fact a miniature glacier. On May 15th, 1904, this crystalline snow had a thickness of 38 inches at its exposed face, under which, extending back to a distance of three feet, was a true glacial cavern. The sand on top was cracked or crevassed, and this, together with the bending of the trees, suggested a slight motion down the slope. On May 30th, the face of ice was covered by sand, but marks made on a white birch showed that the drift had sunk 42 inches since April 24th and 22 inches since May 8th. A tree released entirely from the snow and sand had 32 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. branches broken 84 feet from the ground. A week later the ice had wholly disappeared. The level ground between the sand waves or amphitheaters varies in breadth from two or three hundred yards to half a mile. Here are the bogs, the clumps of bushes, and groups of trees and, except in midsummer, the pools of water. At the northern end of the Ipswich dunes near the lighthouse, and partly shel- tered by Castle Hill, the regular wave-like formation of sand is largely lost and great confusion, like a choppy cross-sea, is to be found in the wind-tossed dunes. Here also small circular depressions are common, with steep sides of sand all around, where the wind has evidently played ina circle. One of the best places to study embryo sand dunes is on the elevated parts of the beach, where clumps of beach-grass are beginning to appear. Around these the blowing sand col- lects. ‘The deeper becomes the sand, tailing out to leeward, the more the grass struggles above it, and the dune has its origin. The flora of the dunes is interesting. The most important plant is the beach-grass (Ammophila arundinacea), already mentioned. This, besides binding the sand, and offering a hiding and nesting place for the Savanna Sparrow in summer, feeds with its generous seed-stalks many birds throughout the winter, notably the Ipswich Sparrow, Horned Lark, Snow Bunting, and Lapland Longspur. Another plant which binds the sand is the poverty grass, (Hudsonia tomentosa), beautifully sage green and closely matted, in winter a sandy gray, but covered in June with a profusion of golden blossoms which give the lie to its common name. In the Ipswich dunes are two groves of pitch pines (Pinus rigida), each of several acres in extent. Under these pines grow a few lady’s slippers (Cypripedium acaule). There are several thickets of white birches (Betula populifolia), and in the bogs, alders (A/mus), aspens (Populus tremuloides), and willows (Salix). The exceptional trees are a few red maples (Acer rubrum), two elms (Ulmus americana), dwarfed and stunted, that look large only at a distance, a few white pines (Pzuus strobus), red cedars (_/unz- perus virginiana), a hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), and a clump of red birches (Betula nigra). Beach plums (Prunus maritima), from which Plum Island is named, are not common at Ipswich. Sumachs, the staghorn (Rhus typhina) and poison (RX. venenata), are to be found, and poison ivy (RK. toxricodendron) abounds. Wild roses (Rosa), bayberry or myrtle (Afyrica carolinensis), sweet gale (. gale), shad-bushes (Amelanchier), and meadow-sweet (Spirea salicifolia, var. datifolia) are all abundant. There are also a few small clumps of rhodora (Rhododendron rhodora), and may they long escape the ruthless flower-hunter. 1 The only other place in the County where red birches are found is along the Merrimac River and its branches. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 33 The bogs are carpeted with cranberry vines ( Vaccintum macrocarpon) which grow and bear luxuriantly without any care. Many berries escape the pickers and can be found on the plants throughout the winter. I have gathered them as late as the first of June, and very good “sauce” they make even at that unusual season. Blue irises (/72s versicolor) and the orchids, Calopogon pulchellus and Pogonia ophioglossoides, bloom abundantly in the early summer among the bogs, where also the sundew (Drosera) flourishes, and the burnet (Potertwm canadense) is not uncommon. In the dry sand are to be found the beautiful seaside golden-rod (Sodzdago sempervirens), the purple gerardia (Gerardia purpurea), the joint-weed (Polygonella articulata), and the curious euphorbia (Euphorbia polygonifolia). Here also, especially on the edges near the beach, the American sea-rocket (Cakzle amert- cana), saltwort (Salsola kalt), cocklebur (Xanthium), and the halberd-leaved orache (Adriplex patulum, var. hastatum) are common and characteristic. The star-shaped puff-ball (Geas¢er) is also common among the dunes. Although most of the pools of water are stained brown with vegetation, one may occasionally be found in the early spring which is as clear and green as an alpine lake, and the snow-white peaks of sand in the vicinity serve to increase the ilusion. Early in May, the bayberry bushes are still gray and wintry, the sweet gale is a rich chestnut brown, and the A/udsonia begins to emerge from its sandy state and show a slight tinge of sage green. The cranberry plant is always beautiful with its varied tones of red, chestnut, and green, and its beautiful berries which, at first green and white, become brilliant red, with deep purple bloom. In June whole acres are golden with the Adsonia blossoms, and the bogs are dotted with the blue iris and the pink and magenta Pogonia and Calo- pogon. The tracks of animals in the sand are always interesting, from the extra- ordinary ones of the grasshopper and the toad, the universal Crow’s tracks, and those of many smaller birds, to those of the mice, hares, skunks, foxes, and muskrats, the last-named proclaiming his identity by the groove made by his. heavy tail. There are two aliens whose tracks abound in the dunes, the one from the eastern continent, the Ring Pheasant, the other from the western part of our continent, the jack rabbit. The latter animal, when disturbed, bounds off through the dunes, looking almost as large as a calf to the astonished intruder. At all seasons the dunes are beautiful, even though in summer they be hot and weary tramping and cold and wind-swept in winter. The sand blows and cuts so fiercely that glass has been ground opaque by the blast in a single storm, and one has to look after his bird-glasses as well as his eyes. The true dune- lover, however, enjoys as deeply the beauty of their winter desolation as he does the glories of their spring loveliness. 34 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. Such favored regions among the dunes as well as on the islands and hill- sides near the sea were favorite resorts of the American aborigines before the arrival of the whites, as is attested not only by scattered stone arrowheads and hatchets which have been found there, but also by the presence of shellheaps composed largely of the clam, and, in some places, of the oyster. In these shellheaps, bones of birds, among them those of the Great Auk, of fish, and of mammals may be found, as well as bits of pottery, stone and bone implements. Of the birds of the dunes, one must name the Ipswich Sparrow first, for here it was, in 1868, that Mr. C. J. Maynard discovered it. The other winter birds characteristic of the dunes are the Horned Lark, Snow Bunting, and Lap- land Longspur, although the Longspur generally disappears after the middle of January. All feed on the seeds of the beach-grass, and literally cover the sand with their tracks. Another bird common at all seasons in the dunes, but especially abundant in winter, roosting there in considerable numbers, is the American Crow. Here is the best place to find his food records, namely, his ejected pellets, in which cranberries and bayberries, so common in the dunes, are prominent. Another bird that may always be found among the dunes in winter sheltered by the pines and feeding on bayberries is the Yellow-rumped Warbler. Flickers and Chickadees frequent these same pines in winter and enjoy the same nourishing berries, and one or two Red-breasted Nuthatches may sometimes be found there. Crossbills and Pine Grosbeaks, in the winters of their plenty, also feed there. Savanna Sparrows nest in numbers at the foot of the clumps of tall beach- grass throughout the dunes, and on the edges of the tidal inlets from the marsh. The nests of Red-winged Blackbirds and Bronzed Grackles are abundant in the bogs and groves of birches. The Crow, in the absence of tall trees, builds perforce in the stunted pines and birches, at times only ten or twelve feet from the ground. Black-billed Cuckoos, Kingbirds, Song Sparrows, Northern VYellow- throats, and Robins, are all common summer residents. Tree Swallows nest there occasionally in hollow trees and Bank Swallows in the wind-cuttings of the dunes. All the Swallows collect in great numbers in the dunes during the fall migra- tions, particularly the Tree Swallow which feeds on the bayberries. A few Piping Plover still lay their eggs in shallow depressions of the sand, but the Common, Arctic, and Least Terns, found breeding among the dunes in the late sixties by Maynard, have long since ceased to nest there. During the spring and autumn, the dunes with their sheltering bogs and groves at times swarm with migrants resting along this great highway by the sea, on their way to and from their nesting places in the North. The American Pipit abounds in the autumn, but generally eludes us in the spring. Migrant Warblers are easily found and studied there, as the islands of trees are so few BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 35 and small, and at the same time the trees themselves are so short, that the con- centration is sometimes extreme. Mr. Ralph Hoffmann, on May 22d, 1904, saw within the space of three minutes eleven different species of Warblers passing through one apple tree in the dunes. These were as follows: Black and White, Nashville, Parula, Yellow, Black-throated Blue, Magnolia, Bay-breasted, Black- poll, Blackburnian, and Black-throated Green Warblers, and Redstart: In addition to this bewildering array of Warblers, I have also seen among the dunes the Yellow-rumped, Chestnut-sided, Pine, Yellow Palm, Prairie, and Canadian Warblers, the Oven-bird, Water-Thrush, and Northern Yellowthroat, a grand total of twenty different members of the Warbler family. Other migrants and residents are of course to be found in the dunes but it is hardly necessary to speak of these here. 36 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. CHAPTER V. THE SALT MARSHES AND THEIR BIRDS. “ Agowamme [Ipswich] is nine miles to the North from Salem, which is one of the most spa- tious places for a plantation, being neare the sea, it aboundeth with fish, and flesh of fowles and beasts, great Meads and Marshes and plaine plowing grounds, many good rivers and harbours and no rattle snakes.”— Woop, Mew Englands Prospect, 1634. THE extensive areas of salt marshes to be found around the Squam, the Essex, Castle Neck, Ipswich, Parker, Plum Island, and Merrimac Rivers are regions of great interest to the ornithologist as well as to the sportsman. Extending from the rocky, pine-clad hills of the back of Cape Ann on the south, to the Merrimac and the limits of the County on the north, and from the sea on the east back for a varying distance up to five miles, the marshes are intersected by numerous rivers, large and small, and dotted by islands of greater or lesser size. The larger streams, coming from the higher country to the westward, fresh in character before they meet the tidal current, are rightly called rivers, while the numerous smaller streams that wander through the marshes and are nearly dry at low tide, are known as creeks. These salt marshes were evidently great basins or bays extending in from the sea after the glacial period. Bars, beaches, and sand dunes were piled up later, vegeta- tion gradually encroached upon the lessened tidal currents, and there are now great areas of marsh threaded by meandering creeks. Most of the islands are typical glacial drumlins, whose lower outlines are obliterated by the encircling marsh, some showing their tops only above the grass. In some places there are evidences of recent changes in level. The great marshes back of Plum Island River are called the “ Hundreds.” From a botanical point of view the salt marshes can be divided into three distinct regions. First, the region of the coarse salt-grass (Spartina stricta) everywhere in Essex County called “thatch,” which flourishes on the edges of creeks only, washed by every tide. It grows to a height of four or five feet and retains the fine detritus at its base, so that one always sinks into soft mud when struggling through it. The thatch is prized for bedding and for mulch, being free from weed seeds, but although it is generally cut, much is carried off by the tides before it is harvested ; or it is broken off in winter, and lines the BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 37 edges of the marsh. The second region is that of the salt-grass or marsh hay (Puccinellia maritima and Spartina patens), a region reached by the tides once or twice a month at full and new moon. This grass rarely grows more than ten or twelve inches in height. It is regularly cut and harvested, and brought off on poles carried by men, or in hay-boats along the creeks, or left in huge cocks, elevated on small piles,—‘“ staddles” as they are called,—to be taken off on sledges when the marsh is frozen. In cutting the grass, mowing-machines are used except in the soft places, and the horses wear broad, wooden marsh-shoes. Among the salt-grass grow patches of samphire (Salcornia herbacea). The marsh rosemary (Statice imonium, var. caroliniana) is common, and the grass- like, seaside plantain (Plantago decipiens). The third region is the upper edge of the marsh where it joins the uplands, a region visited only by the unusual spring and autumn tides. Here grows the “black-grass,” in reality a rush (/wuncus gerardi), which gives the edges a distinctly dark color, almost black when the rush is in fruit. In this region also, or just above it, one may find patches of the delicious.sweet-grass (Hizerochloé borealis), while the silver-weed (Potentzlla anserina), seaside gerardia (Gerardia maritima), and seaside golden-rod (Solz- dago sempervirens) also flourish. In the channels of the creeks grows the eel- grass (Zostera marina) commonly mistaken for a seaweed but in reality a flow- ering plant. This is cast up by the tides with the thatch and is used by a number of birds in nest-building. One of the picturesque features of these marshes in the autumn months is the herring fishery. This is carried on in the creeks and waterways by night. A flaming torch in the bow of the boat attracts the herring, which are then dipped up with a hand-net, and many barrels full are taken in a single night. A fisherman related to me an unpleasant experience he once had from a Duck flying towards the dazzling torch, and striking him full in the face. Two black- ened eyes resulted from this chance acquaintance. In various places in the marsh, where the drainage is poor, the water and dead thatch collect and kill the grass, forming mudflats and pools, or “sloughs ”’ as they are generally called in the good old English of Bunyan. These are the favorite resorts for the shore birds and the gunners. The delicate greens of the marsh in early spring, with the ribbons and basins of blue water, constantly swelling and dwindling with the changing tides, the deeper greens and brilliant yellows and browns of midsummer, the rich chestnuts of autumn with the scarlet patches of samphire, the faded browns and arctic ice formation of winter,— all give an indescribable charm to the salt marshes. In the salt creeks and at the mouths of the rivers, nearly all of the sea birds are at times to be found, and it is not necessary to repeat here the list already given. While the Gulls and Terns, during the summer, prefer the 38 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. beach and sea, they are often to be found feeding in the waterways and on the marsh itself, especially during stormy weather. In the large basin at the mouth of the Essex River and in Plum Island River, Common Terns find favorite feed- ing places, and are frequently to be seen flying about and resting on the numer- ous buoys. They also spread over the marshes, especially at the high, autumn tides. Herring Gulls at times collect in great numbers on the sandflats of the creeks and on the marsh itself. The Great Black-backed Gull also is often to be found there, and, in the migrations, the Bonaparte’s Guil, although the latter seems to prefer the beach. The three characteristic Ducks of the marshes during the migrations and in winter, are the Black Duck (both the Common and the Red-legged), the American Golden-eye or Whistler, and the Red-breasted Merganser. The loud quack of the Black Ducks is often to be heard as they are feeding in the marshes at night, and their swift-flying forms and breezy wing-strokes are to be seen and heard in the early morning as they repair to the sea for their day’s rest. The Golden-eye, on loudly whistling wings, hastens in at sunrise from his night’s rest on the ocean to take the place of the Black Duck in the marsh. These two are the Box and Cox of the marshes. On stormy days, however, the Black Ducks prefer the marshes to the sea, and even in pleasant weather there are always a few of these birds to be found in the marshes, generally feeding con- cealed in the small, winding creeks. The Red-breasted Merganser, like the Golden-eye, is a frequenter of the creeks by day, but the majority remain out- side on the ocean. Its cousin, the Goosander, being a fresh-water bird, only rarely is found in the salt creeks and the same is true of the Hooded Merganser. Of the Rails, the Sora or Carolina Rail is the only one that can be depended upon as a regular visitant to the salt marshes, and then only during the migra- tions. The Yellow and Virginia Rails, as well as the American Coot, prefer, in Essex County at least, to wet their feet in fresh water, although the two last are occasionally found in the salt marshes. The Herons are well and conspicuously represented in this region and one of the great pleasures of exploring the winding creeks in sailboat or canoe, is the frequent glimpses of one of these birds. The Great Blue Heron shows to best advantage here, where sense of proportion is lacking in the broad expanse of the marsh. In the spring, and after the first of August, these are common birds in this region, and there is no doubt but that their numbers would increase if the gunner could be purged of the instinct to kill them on sight, either because they are so large, or possibly because of a prejudice inherited from the game-owners and game-keepers of the Old World. The Green and the Night Herons and the Bittern are also to be found in the marshes, the Green Heron being the least common. The Night Heron is seen to best advantage BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 39 during June, when the demands of the young are so great that the parents are obliged to fish by day as well as by night. These handsome birds with their long plumes, which are worn by adults of both sexes, can then be seen in broad daylight, often in considerable numbers, on the sand- and mudflats and bars of the numerous creeks. Later in the season, the young and old flock to the marshes by night, and their sgwzawk becomes a familiar sound to the dwellers in these regions. Of the shore birds there are some whose occurrence in the salt marsh is accidental. Thus the Wilson’s Snipe delights in fresh-water marshes, but may very rarely be found on the salt marsh. The Sanderling and the Knot are typical beach birds, but on occasions they stray into the marsh, and even the Purple Sandpiper, a bird of rocky islands, has been found on the marshes of Cape Cod, although this must have been purely accidental. The Phalaropes, in the same way, have also been found in marshes. Sandflats and sloughs in marshes near the sea sometimes attract such beach birds as Black-bellied Plover, Turnstones, Piping and Semipalmated Plover. The Golden Plover, which prefers the upper beach and the fields, may also wander into the marshes. The Semipalmated Sandpiper is not infrequently seen here with his marsh-loving friend, the Least Sandpiper, and on those occasions he looks very sandy and out of place. The Upland Plover, although typically a bird of the fields and hills, will not infrequently drop into the upper parts of the salt marshes, as there are many grasshoppers in this region, and his uplifted wings, as he alights, are very conspicuous in the black-grass. The characteristic shore birds of the salt marsh are, however, the Least Sandpiper or “ Mud-peep,” to be found on nearly every mudflat during the migrations, the Spotted Sandpiper that flies before the intruder in half circles along the banks of the muddy creeks uttering his famil- iar cry, the Yellow-legs, Greater and Lesser, whose alarm notes ring out over the marsh, startling each dreaming bird and gunner to attention, the Grass-bird or Pectoral Sandpiper, and the Dowitcher. The Red-backed and Bonaparte’s Sandpipers and the Stilt Sandpiper, the Hudsonian Godwit, Hudsonian Curlew, and Willet, although all frequenters of the beach, appear to be equally at home in the mud-sloughs of the marsh. The Solitary Sandpiper, however, much prefers fresh-water mudholes, or those that are nearly fresh, to the true salt marsh. The number of land birds that frequent the salt marsh is comparatively limited. Of the birds of prey, the Marsh Hawk is most often seen there, although it prefers fresh-water marshes and uplands, and the Short-eared Owl sometimes strays from the sand dunes to the marsh. The American Crow may perhaps be put at the head of the list of marsh-frequenting land birds, as it finds much food in the marshes, and large numbers of these interesting birds are attracted from the inland country, particularly in the winter season, when frost 40 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. and snow lock fast the uplands. At this time flocks of fifty or a hundred or more Crows may be seen walking sedately in the short grass or searching the eel-grass and sandflats at low tide. All is game that comes to their net : fish, dead or alive, various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and any carrion that may be washed up on the marsh. When severe winter weather has frozen the creeks and covered the marshes with ice, Crows may frequently be seen search- ing in the cracks between the ice cakes or on the edges of the scattered pools made by the force of the tides. They even fish off the edge of ice cakes. The Meadowlark also enjoys the marsh, but although a few may linger in cold weather, they are rarely to be seen when extensive ice formation occurs. The Bobolink, Red-winged Blackbird, and Bronzed Grackle in summer, and the Rusty Grackle during the migrations, find good feeding in the salt marshes. Barn, Cliff, Bank, and Tree Swallows skim the marshes as they do the surface of a pond for the insects to be found there, and gather in large flocks in middle and late summer from all the surrounding country, preparatory to their south- ward migration. Posts, stumps, “staddles,” gunners’ blinds, in fact, every available prominence is covered at times so as to appear black with the crowding birds, among which the Tree Swallow takes first rank in point of numbers. At a signal they all rise, showing alternately their white breasts and dark backs. Around every available resting-place the ground is white with the Swallows’ droppings, in which numerous bayberries appear prominently. The Kingbird makes its erratic flight over the marsh after insects and alights, screaming, on post or “staddle.” The enterprising Robin, as he visits the beach, visits also the marshes, and the Song Sparrow occasionally strays there from the neighboring fields. On rare occasions the Ipswich Sparrow leaves the dunes for the marsh. The Savanna Sparrow and the Sharp-tailed Sparrow are, however, the most characteristic summer Passerine birds of the salt marshes, and they both make their nests there, or rather on the borders of the marsh and on islands wherever the ground is elevated enough to escape the high tide of the full moon. Here, cleverly concealed in the dried thatch and eel-grass thrown up by the early spring and autumn tides, their nests are to be looked for, and, it may be added, less often found. The Nelson Sharp-tailed Sparrow is to be found as an autumn migrant on the same marshes, while its subspecies the Acadian Sharp-tail is a very common spring and autumn migrant. In the salt marshes the Sharp-tailed Sparrow takes the place of the Marsh Wrens in the fresh-water marshes. Both groups of birds are most interesting, and are seldom seen except by one who looks for them. They are an unknown quantity to the casual observer. Both are very deft in concealing themselves, and in moving about through the grass and reeds. Both have curious songs, although that of the Sharp-tails is much more suggestive of the hissing of hot iron in water BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 4i than of a song. Another frequenter of the marshes, common enough in the autumn, but rare in the spring, is the American Pipit or Titlark. Coming in flocks and perfectly at home in the marshes, this bird prefers, however, the cul- tivated fields, the sand dunes, or the beaches. During the colder months of the year the Horned Lark is to be found in flocks throughout this region. Less commonly the Snow Bunting feeds there, and rarest of all, during its shorter stay, the Lapland Longspur, borne along by the flock of Larks or Buntings, may descend with them to the marsh. During the very high tides, especially in the spring and autumn, the marshes are converted into inland seas, and the birds that harbor there are driven to the more elevated regions. By skirting the edges of the marshes at these times one may often find such birds as Bit- terns, Herons, Rails, shore birds, and Sharp-tailed Sparrows. In the marshes the shooting of shore birds is done almost entirely from permanent blinds, which are owned or leased by gunners. The blinds are made of bushes or stakes driven into the mud with branches, eel-grass, or thatch so disposed as to conceal the gunner within. Sometimes to keep out the tide a water-tight box is used, the outer sides of which are covered with mud and salt- grass sods. The blinds are placed near mudholes and small pools, and a con- venient alighting-place is often made extending out as a miniature sand bar directly away from the blind, so that the gunner may rake with more deadly effect the hapless birds. Decoys are used as on the beaches, sometimes in large numbers, and their reflections in the waters of the pools appear very life-like. Much skill is at times displayed in clever imitation of the different bird-notes in order to call the birds within gunshot, sometimes from distant parts of the marsh. In former years shore birds doubtless flocked to every suitable feeding- ground in the marshes, but now with diminishing numbers they are found year after year at a limited number of favored spots, notwithstanding the use of the gun there, while they neglect others apparently just as suitable. Duck-shooting in the creeks and marshes of Essex County is practiced in several ways. The float, as it is called, is commonly used —a light, flat-bot- tomed, narrow skiff with sides rounding over to conceal the gunner, who lies flat, and, by an oar extending through a hole in the stern, skillfully sculls onto the game. Small bushes or thatch in the bow and on the sides increase the protection. By getting to windward ‘of the birds he is enabled to drift or “float” down towards them, and as they rise against the wind he sits up for a shot. Scoters, Buffleheads, and even Black Ducks may be obtained in this manner if care be used, but Whistlers and Shelldrakes are generally too wary unless they be approached under cover of the bank of the creek. Blinds of bushes or thatch, or cakes of ice along the creeks, and wooden decoys are used for Whis- tlers and Shelldrakes, while Black Ducks pay but scant attention to any but live 42 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. decoys which are used to attract them. In windy weather, however, when the well-painted Black Duck decoys are bobbing about actively on the water, the birds are occasionally deceived. Black Ducks are sometimes shot, especially in stormy weather, as they spring from pools in the marsh or from small creeks under whose banks at low tide they have been feeding concealed, or as they fly low to and from their feeding-places at sunset and sunrise. In calm weather they are apt to fly high. When the creeks are locked by ice, the gunner, clad in white, takes his station behind blocks of ice near a small opening and shoots the birds as they fly to and fro. At these times, owing to scanty feeding, even the wary Black Duck becomes desperate and loses some of its shyness. This aberration of mind on the part of the Black Duck is always hoped for but rarely found, and when it does occur the gunner is apt to be rewarded by only skin and bones. On moonlight nights the gunner ensconces himself in a blind by a creek or mudflat and uses bunches of seaweed, blocks of mud, or junks of ice covered with dark cloth for decoys. The Black Ducks readily come in to these rude decoys in the uncertain light of the moon. The gunner may hear the whistle of wings all around him, often apparently close at hand, but is rarely able to see the birds except momentarily as they fly across the path of the moon. When the moon is overcast, however, the light is more diffuse and the birds may be more readily seen. Occasionally the Ducks swim up the creeks to the decoys, and are shot on the water. It is cold and uncertain, but often exciting sport. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 43 CHAPTER VI. THE FRESH MARSHES AND THEIR BIRDS. “This Towne [Ipswich] is scituated on a faire and delightfull River, whose first rise or spring begins about five and twenty Miles farther up in the Countrey, issuing forth a very pleasant pond. But soone after it betakes its course through a most hideous swamp of large extent, even for many Miles, being a great Harbour for Beares.”— Jounson, ‘* Wonder-working Providence,” 1654. Tue fresh marshes are the various regions about the rivers and ponds, for- merly large basins after the glacial period, but now choked with vegetation, yet still flooded in winter and early spring. One of these, probably the same that is alluded to in the “ Wonder-working Providence,” but no longer a “ Harbour for Beares,”’ may be taken as a typical example. This is of large extent, situated within the boundaries of Wenham, Hamilton, and Topsfield, and is threaded by the Ipswich River. In this marsh the growth of rushes and grasses is rank and tall, and among these a multitude of Long-billed Marsh Wrens live and build their nests. The rush-like plants in which they breed are chiefly as follows, be- longing to several widely separated families: great bulrush (Sczrpus lacustris), horse-tail (Egutsetum limosum), sweet flag (Acorus calamus), blue joint-grass (Calamagrostis canadensis), reed canary-grass (Phalaris arundinacea). There are several islands in this marsh, one of which, near the middle, is the site of a friend’s camp to which I have made occasional visits. This island is of irregular shape and of most interesting glacial formation, extending in narrow curving ridges through the marsh. It is covered with a tall growth of red and white oaks, beeches, canoe birches,: white pines, hemlocks, and several other trees. Early in May the marsh is generally flooded, and the new grass and reeds begin to push up in green islands. The surrounding woods show the prevalence of the red maple in the ruddy tint of the tree tops. The oaks are still bare and wintry on the islands, but the ground below is yellow with the dog-tooth violet (Erythronium americanum), whose mottled leaves are not its least charm. Later in May the regions of grass increase and the water dwindles. The islands are fringed with the delicate green of willow and birch, the line broken here and there by the snowy shad-bushes. Above these rise the white oaks, just putting forth their silvery young leaves, and higher still looms the dark background of white pines, with here and there the candelabra tips of the red pines. 44 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. Early in May is the time to explore the fastnesses of the marsh, for at this season one can often push a canoe through the length and breadth of this inter- esting region. The piping of hylas is almost deafening, and not a one to be seen. Red-winged Blackbirds are the most common birds and are to be seen on every hand, the males, after a month of waiting, nearly bursting with their efforts to display their gorgeous epaulettes to the newly arrived ladies. They are in the air, on the partly submerged bushes, and especially on such tufts of grass as emerge above the flood. The greatest numbers are to be found in the late after- noon, as during the day they are foraging in the upland fields. The varied songs and call notes of the Red-wing would fill a book, and are ever ringing in the ears. The next most characteristic sound of the fresh-water marshes in the spring is the pumping of the Bitterns. It is to be heard from several quar- ters of the marsh, sometimes from three or four different birds in quick succes- sion and one almost expects to hear the water gush out as the pumping pro- gresses, so perfect is the imitation. With the canoe skillfully and silently directed towards the sound, paddling only during the pumping, one may some- times hear the preliminary gulps and catch sight of the performer with bill pointed up and breast inflated, making huge efforts at this, his curious love song. Every now and then we start a pair, sometimes two or three pairs, of Black Ducks, that mount straight up on noisy wings and then circle about over the woods, perhaps to return after our departure. They have nests doubtless not far off. Occasionally we put up a pair of the much smaller Wood Ducks. From all the wooded islands and small clumps of bushes come the varied songs of the Swamp Sparrow, and the birds are frequently seen chasing each other in sport. This is an abundant and most interesting bird of this region. On the islands during the migrations, the birds of a much larger area are fre- quently concentrated, and along the edges one may see many different kinds of Warblers, as well as other land birds. Overhead and skimming the grass and the water, the different Swallows are common, except the Purple Martin, which, however, appears in diminishing ranks. Swifts and Nighthawks, the latter often in large numbers during the migra- tions are to be seen, and throughout the darker hours, the call of the Whip- poor-will comes everywhere from the woods. The scream of the Red-shoul- dered Hawk during the day and the hoot of the Great Horned Owl at night: may also be heard. I have omitted till the end my especial favorites of these marshes, the Long-billed Marsh Wrens with their bubbling songs and delightful ways, and the two common species of Rails, the Carolina or Sora, and the Virginia Rails. These last, unlike good children, are much more often heard than seen, the fer- wee of the former and the telegraphic cut-cutta-cut of the latter coming mysteri- BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 4$ ously from nowhere. The Short-billed Marsh Wrens are to be found in less reedy places where the grass is short and tufted, or even in English-grass meadows. The Yellow Rail rarely, the American Coot, the Dabchick, and various species of Ducks, especially the Black Duck, Wood Duck, and both species of Teal, frequent the marshes during the migrations, the Ducks dropping down into the pools and river. So common are they at times that one portion of this marsh is locally known as the “ Feather-bed,” another, as “ Wood Duck Bushes.” Wild Geese frequently alight in these secluded regions during the spring migrations, sometimes spending several days there before continuing their northward flight. Often they leave behind so many tokens of their moulting that the meadow looks like a poultry-yard. Green and Night Herons are common summer birds, as is also the Great Blue Heron during the spring and late summer months. Some actual records of the various bird-voices of this marsh during the darker hours may be of interest, and show best the character of the fresh marsh. May 22d, 1904; 7 to 7.15 p.M. The evening chorus of birds is still strong, the Red-winged Blackbirds, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Swamp Sparrows, Northern Yellowthroats and other Warblers, Catbirds, Long-billed Marsh Wrens, Wood Thrushes, Veeries, and Robins being especially prominent. The sun sets at 7.09 P. M. 7.15 to 7.30 P.M. The Swamp Sparrows, Northern Yellowthroats, Cat- birds, Wrens, Thrushes, Robins are still active, Red-wings sing only occa- sionally while the other birds become silent at the end of this period. 7.30 to 7.45 P.M. The first Whip-poor-will is heard at 7.30 pP. M., calling 20 times,— 138 times,— 104 times,—5 times. Swamp Sparrows, Northern Yellowthroats, Catbirds, Wrens, Thrushes still sing at intervals; Night Herons guawk. It is otherwise silent except for the frogs, whose full chorus has begun. It is now so dark that a Whip-poor-will that has alit near me on a log cannot be distinguished. May 2st, 1904; 7.45 to 10 p.m. Aclear night, no mooh. Whip-poor- wills are singing nearly all the time; my largest count of repeated songs is 296. Long-billed Marsh Wrens frequently, Swamp Sparrows, Oven-birds, and Northern Yellowthroats occasionally heard. May 22d, 1904; 12 to 12.30 A.M. Whip-poor-wills singing often. 1.30 to 1.45 A.M. A Long-billed Marsh Wren sings three times, a Swamp Sparrow twice, a Northern Yellowthroat gives its flight song once, and a Whip- poor-will repeats its refrain many times. 1.45 to2 A.M. Songs of the Marsh Wren bubble up from several places, 46 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. six times, the Swamp Sparrow trills twice, and once an Oven-bird performs his crazy flight song. Carolina Rails call twice, a Red-shouldered Hawk screams and the Whip-poor-wills are heard. 2 to 2.15 A.M. There is a constant undertone of distant Whip-poor-wills and a few hylas, while leopard frogs “snore” close at hand. The Long-billed Marsh Wrens sing twice, a Least Flycatcher once, a Swamp Sparrow once, and the Oven-bird gives his flight song again. A belated Bobolink chirps as he flies north, and a few Warblers’ calls are heard overhead. How comparatively silent are the nocturnal migrations in the spring! The young and inexperienced of the autumn have fallen by the way, or have learned wisdom. 2.15 to 2.30 A.M. The Marsh Wren sings three times, the Swamp Spar- row sings twice, the Oven-bird indulges in three flight songs, and one incom- plete, ordinary “teacher” song. The Red-shouldered Hawk screams again, and a Spotted Sandpiper whistles in his alarmist manner. Had I been in the salt marshes I should doubtless have heard not infrequently the long call of the Greater Yellow-legs. A Black-billed Cuckoo sang, but whether in flight, as described by Gerald H. Thayer, or from some high tree I could not determine. 2.30 to 2.45 A.M. At 2.35 a.M. there appears in the east the slightest trace of gray dawn. Oven-birds sing their common song twice, Swamp Spar- rows three times, and the Long-billed Marsh Wrens bubble forth six times. The Whip-poor-wills continue, one calling 130 times in succession. A Catbird sings for the first time at 2.40 a. M. An Owl—possibly a Barred Owl — flies by. 2.45 to 3 A.M. The first Song Sparrow and immediately afterwards the first Robin pour forth their songs at 2.45 a.m. My friends the Wrens perform nearly to bursting eight times, and the Swamp Sparrows, with their very varied tones, fourteen times. The Oven-bird explodes like a rocket in the air twice, a Flicker calls at 2.50, and a Northern Yellowthroat mounts into the air in song. A few Black Ducks fly by, and at 2.58 begins a characteristic note of the early morning. It is the chirping song of the Tree Swallow which appears to be all about me and especially overhead. There is now a constant undertone of Robins singing their morning hymn. 3 to 3.15 A.M. At 3 A.M. the rosy hue of dawn appears in the east. Cocks crow at a distant farm-house, a Red-winged Blackbird sings his guank-er- ree, and a Chewink calls from the woods near at hand, but best of all, the divine song of the Wood Thrush is heard. Wrens and Swamp Sparrows sing so frequently that all count is lost. The Oven-bird, Least Flycatcher, and Northern Yellowthroat sing at frequent intervals; a Wilson’s Thrush calls. 1G. H. Thayer: Bird-Lore, vol. 5, p. 143, 1903. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 47 With it all is a constant undertone of Whip-poor-wills, Robins, and Tree Swal- lows. It is still too dark to distinguish writing clearly and the stars are still shining. 3.15 to 3.30 A.M. A Whip-poor-will starts this period by calling 81 times, but I am too busy to count him again. A Tree Swallow occupies the whole fif- teen minutes in singing lustily from his perch on a bush ; most of the Swallow notes come from overhead, but the birds cannot yet be seen in the air. A Nighthawk spekes overhead and a Pheebe calls for the first time at 3.18. At 3.25, while a few stars are still visible, a Yellow Warbler, a Redstart, and a Wilson’s Thrush sing. A Bittern pumps and continues the operation at fre- quent intervals. The Pheasants begin to crow, some 20 minutes after the Domestic Cocks. 3.30 to 3.45 A.M. The full morning chorus is now on. Bitterns, Black- billed ‘Cuckoos, Wood Pewees, Least Flycatchers, Red-winged Blackbirds, Swamp Sparrows, Chewinks, Warblers, Wrens, Wood Thrushes, Robins — all are heard together, and the Whip-poor-wills keep it up till 3.45. A few stars are still shining. 3.45 to4 a.m. Tree Swallows can now be seen flying in irregular circles and “singing.” Their songs have nearly stopped now. Crows begin to call at 3.45. Kingbirds, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Red-eyed Vireos, not before heard, begin at 4 A. M., at which time the last star disappears and the sun rises gloriously at 4.16 a. M. Later in the season when the birds are burdened with family cares, and their spirits are subdued, they do not so much indulge in revelry by night, with the exception of the Long-billed Marsh Wren which is certainly nocturnal in its habits, being more melodious by night than by day. Thus a record for the night of June 24th and 25th, 1904, made in a canoe by the light of a full moon among the Topsfield marshes, is briefly as follows : 7.30 to 7.45 P.M. The sun has set at 7.24. Least Flycatchers, Red- winged Blackbirds, Swamp Sparrows, Catbirds, Long-billed Marsh Wrens, Wood Thrushes, Veeries, and Robins, are all singing vigorously, while the bull-frogs and mosquitoes do their best to drown the bird-music. 7.45 to8 p.m. All of the above are heard, with the exception of the Least Flycatcher, but the songs are growing fainter. A Northern Yellowthroat and a Chewink are also heard. The Whip-poor-wills begin at 7.55 Pp. m., but are much less energetic than a month ago, Of several counts, 12 to. 16 repetitions are common, the intervals are longer, and 93 was the longest song heard. 8.30 to 10 P.M. With the exception of a few Marsh Wrens, the Whip- poor-wills are the only birds heard, and there are long intervals when all bird- voices are hushed. 48 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 11.45 P.M. to 12.15 A. M. The Whip-poor-will calls 15 times in succession and is then silent. Wrens sing 42 times. 12.15 to 1.15 a.m. Nothing but Wrens everywhere, with a constant under- tone of bull-frogs, a trilling of tree-toads, and the occasional splash of a pickerel. 1.15 to 2.00 A. M. Having paddled to the center of Wren-ville in the marsh, I count 187 distinct songs of this bird, with a distant and constant undertone of them; one bird sang near me eight times in a minute. 2 to 2.30 A.M. The first Swamp Sparrow’s song rings out at 2.10 A. M., and six are heard in this half hour. At 2.27 a.m. a Northern Yellowthroat gives its flight song, and at 2.30 a Domestic Cock lifts his voice. Sunrise at 4.11 A.M, , Very different are the nights in late September on the fresh marshes. The tints of autumn are beginning to appear in the brilliant reds of the maples and the yellows of the hickories. The oaks and the alders are still as green as in midsummer, but the marshes themselves look worn and brown, dotted here and there with the brilliant yellow of the bur-marigold (Bzdens chrysanthemotdes). The sharp scream of the Blue Jay resounds from the woods and the Blue- bird’s mournful note is heard as he flies over. Save for these all is quiet on September 2oth, at sunset, except for the quacking of the decoy Black Ducks and their joyful splashings as they wash themselves, glad to escape from their coops. At 5.30 P.M. a Catbird mews and a Goldfinch and some Black-poll Warblers call as they fly over. Just before six, my old friends the energetic Long-billed Marsh Wrens sing three times and Swamp Sparrows sing twice, although their chirpings are heard frequently and one alights close to my head on the bower of oak branches. A Bittern flies by and sails silently into a reedy thicket. The sun has set behind a bank of clouds at 5.46 P.M. "Between 6 and 6.15, Marsh Wrens sing four times, but after that all is silent except for the twitterings of passing migrants in the air. From time to time and some- times from several places, the short clucks and whistles of the Carolina Rail are heard. Not a Duck is to be seen although often Wood Ducks, Teal, and Black Ducks drop into the pools at sunset. Paddling back to the island at 7.30 Pp. M. by moonlight, with the constant chirpings of the passing migrants in my ears, I hear the saw-filing notes of the little Saw-whet Owl coming from a tall tree, and later from some bushes in the marsh. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 49 CHAPTER VII. THE PONDS AND THEIR BIRDS. “Seekest thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake?” Bryant, ‘ Toa Waterfowl.” In the early days, the waterfowl that flew in countless multitudes along the coast line, tarried to rest and feed in the numerous ponds that dot the surface of the County. Incessant persecution has sadly thinned their ranks, and the survivors are very loath to trust themselves to these inviting havens, having learned wisdom from bitter experience. When, however, they see flocks of their companions feeding unharmed, as is the case on such ponds as those in the grand reservation of the Lynn Woods, where no guns intrude, they soon learn to tarry there, and reproduce in a small, but let us hope an increasing way, the scenes enacted in the early days. Would that more of these safety spots could be created, for there is nothing more interesting and beautiful than waterfowl disporting themselves in safety. The owners of land bordering ponds could, by posting signs, exclude gunners from the waters. Waterfowl would soon learn to congregate there during the migrations, and add greatly to the attractiveness of the ponds. Such safety spots scattered all along our coast, or indeed throughout the country, would be of inestimable value to -bird-lovers and would help greatly in preserving an interesting and diminishing class of birds. As an example of the way in which the waterfowl make use of these havens may be recorded the fact that on November Ist, 1904, on Spot Pond, in the Middlesex Fells close to Essex County, I found 230 Black Ducks, 5 Mal- lards, 10 Scaup, both Greater and Lesser, 1 Bufflehead, 1 American Widgeon, 2 Ruddy Ducks, 6 American Coot, and 8 Herring Gulls. A few weeks later, on November 27th, I estimated the wildfowl inhabitants of this pond as follows: 400 Herring Gulls, 500 Black Ducks, both the Red-legged and the Common subspecies, 15 Mallards, 5 American Widgeons, 2 Ruddy Ducks, 1 Lesser Scaup, 6 American Mergansers, and 6 American Coot—a most interesting assemblage. There are other ponds where the migrating Ducks and Geese see their fel- lows, sometimes in large numbers, feeding in apparent security and enticingly 50 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. calling them to their company. Unsuspectingly they hasten to join them, but learn too late that these birds are not friends but treacherous dupes, trained, unwittingly no doubt, to decoy them to their ruin. There are a number of shooting stands at various ponds in the County where live Black Duck, Mallard, and Canada Goose decoys are kept for the purpose of tolling down their passing fellows. These stands vary in complexity from the temporary ambush of reeds and branches with a few wooden decoys and perhaps a couple of live ones, to the more elaborate permanent stands, con- trolled by individuals or clubs. These latter are generally built on wooded points, within the shelter of which the camp with bunks for sleeping is hidden. Close-fitting shutters prevent the lights streaming from the windows at night and alarming any wandering birds. From this camp a path, carefully screened by brush, leads to the blind on the shore of the pond. This is a fenced-in structure, the boards being thoroughly covered with brush of all sorts, skillfully arranged to conceal it, while a canopy of branches overhead helps to hide the gunners from any passing birds. In front of the blind is a gently sloping sand or gravel beach, leading straight out to an acute angle or sand bar. If the spot chosen for the blind is boggy, the beach, which is very desirable, is made by placing sand on a foundation of logs and planks. The wooden decoys, or “blocks,” as they are called, are often skillfully carved and painted to represent Black Ducks, Scaups, Whistlers, Widgeons, and Canada Geese. The more perfect the copy of the living bird, the more success- ful are they in tolling them in. The blocks are either anchored off the shore, or attached to “runners” in groups of fifteen or twenty. These “runners” are small ropes or lines arranged like endless chains, extending from the blind to pulleys in buoys sunk a few inches below the surface of the water, at a distance of a hundred and fifty yards or so off in the pond. The live decoys are teth- ered near the shore or on the beach itself by straps or “boots” attached to their legs, while a snap and swivel fastens them to stakes or to leaden weights. Some live decoys may be attached to a runner, while others are allowed to wander about at will. In the blind are kept pens of “flyers” or “ scalers,” as they are called, generally young birds. These birds are thrown up into the air when Ducks are seen flying about, or swimming on the water at a distance. They fly or “scale” off for a varying distance, and, alighting on the water, begin to swim towards their home, where they are sure of companionship and food. At times the flyers are automatically released from pens at a distance. The sight of these birds flying freely about, quacking and swimming to an attractive beach naturally entices their wild relatives ; for a beach on which they may rest and preen their feathers always has its charms. The-fascinations of the beach are increased by the sight of the decoy birds eagerly feeding on corn which has BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 51 been thrown out to them. The best decoys are those that quack vigorously to each other, and especially to the wandering wildfowl. Another manceuvre which helps greatly to bring in the cautious wild Ducks is the working of the runners, especially if the Ducks have alighted among or near them. The lines inside the blind are quietly and steadily pulled, so that the blocks or live decoys move in a very natural way towards the danger line, or the blocks are pulled back and forth for short distances as if the birds were feeding. At a signal all the gunners in the blind fire at once upon the unsuspecting birds, and the execution, often at close range, is very great. The survivors, if any there be, receive the contents of second barrels and of other guns at hand as they spring into the air or make off. A professional gunner is kept on watch at many of the large camps during the season, and, if any of the proprietors are in the camp, he signals by bells the appearance of wild Ducks. If he is alone he shoots the birds himself if he can, and in this way there are very few flocks that leave the pond without pay- ing toll in greater or lesser amount to the treacherous blind. An accurate list of the different species of waterfowl killed at the various blinds in Essex County would add greatly to our knowledge of the movements and distribution of this interesting class of birds, but it is unfortunately the case that few gunners know or care about the exact naming of their feathered game. Their records must therefore be examined with caution. Many birds are called by the wrong names, and such is the confusion of names among the waterfowl that most records are valueless. I am therefore fortunate in being able to present the records kept for the last five years, from 1900 to 1904, inclusive, by Dr. John C. Phillips, at his shooting stand at Wenham Lake. The records have been made with great care, and the identifications can be depended upon. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Phillips for his kindness in placing them at my disposal. Many interesting notes from this stand will be found in the Annotated List. Wenham Lake lies two thirds in Wenham and the remaining third in Beverly. It contains about three hundred and twenty acres, and is famous for the crystal clearness of its ice. It supplies both Beverly and Salem with water. The following is a sum- mary of the waterfowl shot at this stand on Wenham Lake for the five years from 1900 to 1904, inclusive. 52 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 Holbeell’s Grebe ° I I I Horned Grebe ° 3 4 as 15 Pied-billed Grebe . ° 2 4 Loon : : 2 I I ° ° American Merganser ’ 6 i 13 6 5 12 Red-breasted Merganser j 2 I ° Hooded Merganser 13 9 I 7 2 Mallard : : ° 15 3 I 10 Black Duck . 64 85 50 105 132 Gadwall ° ° ° ° I American Widgeon o I ° II 19 Green-winged Teal ° ° fo) I ° Blue-winged Teal . ° ° I I ° Shoveler ° I ° I ° Pintail . : I 9 6 3 I Wood Duck ° ° ° 8 4 Redhead ° 29 I 22 4 Canvasback ° ° I ° ° Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup 2G i ae \ 49 39 - Whistler 19 17 9 9 19 Bufflehead 6 2 5 13 2 Old Squaw ° ° 2 2 ° American Scoter | ° ) White-winged Scoter , 12 7 } 12 > 18 i 15 Surf Scoter . I J J Ruddy Duck 15 59 23 38 9 Canada Goose co) 47 ° 4 22 Total 160 317 179 302 320 A record has also been kept at this shooting stand of the number of birds that alighted in Wenham Lake or were seen flying over it. 1898 Alighted, 450 Seen flying, — Total 1899 640 1900 403 581 984 IQOI 520 629 1149 1902 300 291 591 1903 514 370 884 BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 53 CHAPTER VIII. LIGHTHOUSE RECORDS. “The sea-bird wheeling round it, with the din Of wings and winds and solitary cries, Blinded and maddened by the light within, Dashes himself against the glare, and dies.” LoncGFELLow, “ The Lighthouse.” Ir a complete and accurate record could be kept at the lighthouses of the birds that are killed by dashing against the lanterns, we should be possessed of very valuable data on the subject of migration. I have corresponded with the keepers of all the lighthouses on the Essex County coast and have visited sev- eral of the light-stations. I have also received for identification some of the birds that have been killed by striking the lights. In 1880, an account was published by Dr. J. A. Allen! of the Destruction of Birds by Light-Houses, made up of letters received by Mr. Ruthven Deane. In this account reference is made to two Essex County lights. Of Cape Ann Lights on Thatcher’s Island, the report, under date of March 6th, 1877, is: “Very few birds are killed by flying against the light except in May and June, when a ‘Swamp Sparrow’ comes about the light, and is sometimes killed. ‘Have known six to be killed in one night.’ Occasionally a sea bird is killed, — not more than three or four in a year.”” Of Marblehead Light, April 1st, 1877, the following: ‘ Very few birds strike the light. At one time 3 small ones were found dead outside the light. They are never around except in foggy nights. No damage has been done by birds striking for the last five years.” In Dr. Allen’s paper several lighthouse keepers state that the number of birds killed is much less than formerly. Thus of Wood Island Light, Saco Harbor, it is stated that ‘of late years very few birds have flown against the light.” Of Highland Light, at North Truro, the following: ‘The large sea birds, as Ducks, Coots, etc., do not now come near the light, as they used to.” At Cape May Light: “Sometimes the light is struck during heavy storms by Black Ducks and vari- ous kinds of sea-fowl, but not nearly so often as formerly.” These obser- vations, if accurate, men are apt to magnify the happenings of former days, 1j. A. Allen: Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club, vol. 5, p. 131, 1880. 54 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. and general impressions in the absence of records are often unreliable, — would suggest one or more of three things: first, a diminution in the number of birds ; second, a change in their course of flight; or, third, an acquired knowledge and avoidance of the dangerous lights. The last explanation may appear fanciful, but Dixon,! in speaking of the nets placed on the shores of the Wash to catch the autumn migrants, says that “the birds are learning, by many years’ experi- ence, to avoid these snares, flying over instead of through them, and that noth- ing like the numbers are caught nowadays.” Thinking to obtain some light on this question I wrote to the keepers at Point Lepreaux, New Brunswick, and at Fire Island. At the former station, in 1885, Mr. Brewster 2 made his classic observations on bird migration, finding numerous birds attracted to their destruction by this light, while Mr. Dutcher ® studied the destruction of birds at Fire Island, in 1882 and 1883. The letter from Point Lepreaux, under date of February 25th, 1904, is as follows: “ About six years ago the old fixed light was burned down. A year later a re- volving light was built and since then there have been but few birds killed, probably not more than fifty birds in the five years..... But few strike the glass, but they scale off without being injured. The lighthouse is now situated some fifty yards farther from the fog alarm than the old building..... ee (Signed) G, HEerpert Tuomas, Light-keeper. Owing to these changes in the character and location of the light no argu- ments can be deduced from the reduction in the number of birds killed. The letter from the keeper at Fire Island, dated September 29th, 1904, is as follows: “There are not as many birds killed by striking the lantern as in years gone by. .... There were three Wild Geese killed one night last winter and about twenty song birds killed one night this fall, and about fifteen another night. There seem to bea great many congregate here for the fall migration.” (Signed) E. 8S. Morr, Keeper, Fire Island L. H. In 1882, Mr. Dutcher reports that 256 birds were killed at this light, and in 1883, 562 birds. The falling off in numbers of late years is certainly remarkable. The following are the results of my inquiries on the Essex County coast. (1) Newsuryport LicuT: a fixed light of the fourth order, 50 feet above sea level on a tower 35 feet high. Under date of April 8th, 1903, the following letter was written to me by the keeper : 1 Charles Dixon: British Sea Birds, p. 294, 1896. 2 ‘Wm. Brewster: Bird Migration, Mem. Nuttall Orn. Club, no. 1, 1886. 3 Wm. Dutcher: Auk, vol. 1, p. 174, 1884. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 55 “Tn regard to birds that strike the tower and kill themselves, as soon as they are on the ground they are captured by cats. The birds that are most likely to strike the tower are what I call Spider-catchers. They are about here in the spring and fall and strike mostly in foggy nights..... (Signed) E. C, HavDLey. Mr. Hadley’s remarks about cats are probably very true, and account for the small number of birds found at many lights. (2) Ipswicu Licut: a fixed and flash light of the fifth order, 50 feet above sea level on a tower of 30 feet. It is nearly concealed by the sea of dunes in which it stands some 350 yards from high-water mark. Although the former keeper, the late Capt. Ellsworth, and the present one, Mr. Mills Gunderson, have kept watch for birds for me, none have struck the light for many years, with the exception of a Short-eared Owl, in 1894. September 14th, 1904, was a muggy, rainy, and foggy day, but the fog cleared in the evening, and birds were evidently encouraged to migrate, for from my station outside the lantern at the top of the tower, they could be heard call- ing to each other at frequent intervals. They continued to fly by during the gentle southwest rain, but none of them came near enough to the lantern to be seen. During sudden, hard downpours, the birds ceased passing, or at least none were heard. From ten o’clock that night till four the next morning no watch was kept. There were occasional hard downpours, but not a feather was found on the platform outside the lantern. Between four and half past, in the morning, birds were constantly flying by, but were not seen. Apparently they paid no attention to the light. During part of this time it rained hard. The notes of a Ring-neck Plover and of a Semipalmated Sandpiper were recognized. This certainly seemed an ideal night for migrants to become confused and strike the lantern, and there was no lack of passing birds, but they avoided the snares of Ipswich Light. (3) Annisgusm LicuT: a fixed light of the fifth order, 50 feet above sea level, on a tower 34 feet high. The following was written to me on May 3oth, 1903: “Tt is very seldom that birds hit my light, but if they do I will send them to you.” (Signed) Joun W. Davis, Keeper. I have received none from this station as yet. (4) Care Ann Licuts: these are twin lights on Thatcher’s Island, off the end of Cape Ann. They are fixed lights of the first order, on towers 165 feet above sea level, and 112 feet above the rocks. Mr. A. F. Tarr, the head keeper, has kept a record since 1884, not only of the birds killed by striking the lights, but also of the arrival of birds about the 56 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. island. His record of many of the larger sea birds is an accurate one, as he is perfectly familiar with such birds as Loons, Shags, and Gannets, but most of the land birds are classed together as small land birds, although some have been accurately identified. I am much indebted to him for his kindness in allowing me to examine this record, and for much interesting information, as well as for sending me some of the birds killed against the lights. Mr. Tarr has been a keeper at Thatcher’s Island since 1876, and he thinks that the number of birds striking the lights has diminished, but his records for the last twenty years do not show this to be the case. The number killed annually varies greatly, averaging about 15 or 20, but amounting to many more in some years, or even in a single night. The earliest and latest dates at which birds are recorded as being killed are, April 6th to June 18th in the spring flight, and July 20th to December 18th in the fall flight, showing fairly well the migratory periods. To many, July 20th may seem too early for the autumn migration, not realizing that the beginning of this movement occurs so early in the summer. I myself have heard small land birds passing over in large numbers during the night as early as July 27th, and the arrival in the first part of July of many shore and sea birds is well known. As early as August 8th, fifteen small land birds are recorded as having been killed in one night at Thatcher’s Island. Hawks, Flickers, Crows, Blackbirds, Swallows, Robins, and Bluebirds, all easily identified birds, have never struck the lights. These are all known to be day-migrating birds. On the other hand, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, included among the diurnal migrants,! struck on May 13th, 1886. Mr. F. J. Cook, one of the under keepers, told me that he saw another Hummingbird flying about the lantern one dark night, but it escaped unharmed. Ducks, Brant, Petrels, Phalaropes, Curlew, Sandpipers, Plover, Bittern, Rail, Brown Thrasher, Titmouse, and Woodcock are among the victims recorded by Mr. Tarr. I have myself identified a Black-billed Cuckoo killed on June roth, 1903, at 11 P. M.; a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on Sep- tember 28th, 1903; Yellow Redpoll Warbler, April roth, 1904; 8 Northern Phalaropes, September 9th, 1904; Magnolia Warbler, October 8th, 1904; Swamp Sparrow, Savanna Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Solitary Vireo, and Parula Warbler on October oth and ioth, 1904. In some cases the velocity of the bird, when it strikes, is so great that the glass outside the lantern is broken. This glass is one quarter inch French plate. One Brant and five Ducks, two of them Blue-winged Teals, are recorded by Mr. Tarr as having gone through this glass. In one case the Duck was picked up intact with the exception of the head, which was missing. Another 1 Wm, Brewster: Bird Migration, Mem. Nuttall Orn. Club, no. 1, p. 19, 1886. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 57 Duck shot through the glass, and was taken alive and unharmed inside; and a Blue-winged Teal was living some hours after going through the glass. The fact that the bird is sometimes unharmed can be explained by the great velocity at the instant of the impact, just as the candle, in the old experiment, is shot from a gun through an inch board. The Brant is recorded as having made a hole 19 by 20 inches in size. This was on April 11th,1901. The Blue- winged Teals went through on October 26th, 1890, and October 15th, 1903, while the three other Ducks performed the feat on December 18th, 1884, December 5th, 1885, and October 14th, 1888, respectively. On the same night that the Brant made the large hole in the glass, three others struck and were killed. In the autumn flight of the same year, namely, November 26th, 1901, thirteen Brant met their doom in the night by dashing against the light. An Eider Duck struck one of the lights on April roth, rgor1, and a Petrel, on June 8th, 1891. On August 2d, 1903, between 30 and 4o Plover or Sandpipers were seen hovering about the south towers between 1.30 and 3 A.M., but none were killed. On August 18th, 1901, a Rail and 13 Plover were killed, and on June 13th, a Brown Thrasher flew to its death. There are two records of Woodcock killing themselves against the lanterns, one on April 14th, 1893, and the other on March 25th, 1901. The most remarkable record, however, is that of September 2d, 1899. On this night an immense flock of “Sea Geese” or Phalaropes, probably the North- ern Phalarope, dashed against the lights, so that the dead and dying covered the balconies and the ground around the towers. One man picked up 800 of these birds and Mr. Tarr estimated that 1000 were destroyed. Again, on September gth, 1904, eight out of a large flock of Northern Phalaropes seen about the lights, killed themselves. This was between 12.30 and 44a.m. I identified the remains of one of these. Canada Geese are said to fly about the lights on foggy nights, and loudly honk, but they have not been known to strike. Mr. Tarr and other keepers report that on foggy nights, during the migrations, many birds are to be seen about the lights, repeatedly fluttering against the glass, or simply flying about outside in a confused manner, but only a very small proportion do themselves a fatal injury. Sometimes they flutter down onto the platform, but disappear with the first rays of the morning. On September 23d, 1904, I spent the night at Thatcher’s Island. It was a clear moonlight night with a strong northwester blowing —a very poor night for bird observation at a lighthouse. An hour spent on the platform outside the lantern of the south tower was fruitless. Not a bird was to be seen, while the roar of the surf and the howling of the wind made it impossible to hear any bird-notes. The next morning I found a Brown Creeper creeping about on the inhospitable rocks where it had paused to rest on this great highway by the sea. 58 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. (5) Eastern Point Licut, Gloucester: a fixed and flash red light of the fourth order, 60 feet above sea level on a tower 33 feet high. April 2d, 1903. “T never find any birds around this lighthouse, as this is a red light and the birds never follow that ray.” (Signed) Gurorce E. BalLey. The red light is apparently not the cause of the absence of bird destruction, for birds are killed by striking other red lights, as at Wood Island, Maine. (6) BaxeEr’s IsLanp Licuts: two fixed lights of the fourth order, 87 and 64 feet, respectively, above sea level, on towers 52 and 29 feet high. Under date of February 3d, 1904, the keeper writes: “T have never known any large birds such as Ducks, etc., to strike against the glass of the tower at this station. But frequently in foggy weather during spring and summer months, I find small birds at the base of the towers, which have killed them- selves during the night. On the morning of the dark or yellow day [September, 1881] I picked up nearly one hundred of small birds.... Should I find any birds I will send them to you.” (Signed) WattTER T. RocErs. (7) Hospiray Point Licut, Beverly: a fixed light of the third order, 63 feet above sea level, on a tower 39 feet high. The record from this light is as follows, the letter being written to me on November 7th, 1904: “Tn answer to your request about the birds I would state that there has been but one killed by striking against this light since I have been at this station, which is thirty years. That was a Woodcock in the spring of 1888.” (Signed) JoserH H. Herrick, Keeper. (8) MarsLEHEAD LicuT: a fixed light of the sixth order, 43 feet above sea level, on a tower 23 feet high. There is a small light ona mast 57 feet above the main lantern. January 29th, 1904. “T have not seen any birds kill themselves on my light since I have been here.” (Signed) H. T. Drayton. (9) Ecce Rock Lieut, off Nahant: a fixed red light of the fifth order, 87 feet above sea level and 25 feet above the rock. January 28th, 1904. “JT have now been here nearly sixteen years, and to my knowledge there has not been one bird killed by striking the light tower in all this time. There are but few birds that stop upon the rock; I suppose it is because there are no trees for them BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 59 to alight upon. We have the little Sandpipers here in summer that breed their little ones upon the island, and they are the only ones that stop here. Along in April and May when the birds return from their southern home, sometimes in foggy weather and wind coming from the south, the island will be covered with all kinds of birds, but just as soon as the weather clears they will leave to go farther north from here. But for some reason they never seem to fly against the lighthouse lantern so as to get killed, as they do at some stations on the coast. Should there be anything I could do in any way to aid you, I should be pleased to do so freely.” (Signed) Geo. L. Lyon. This letter is interesting and shows that the birds that crowd the island during foggy weather in the migrations are for some reason able to avoid destruction by the light. It is, however, possible that some are killed, but being blown off, escape observation or are eaten by cats. 60 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. CHAPTER IX. ORNITHOLOGICAL HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY. 1616-1904. ‘““Ayre darkening sholes of pigeons picke their berries sweet and good, The lovely cherries birds entice to feast themselves in woods. The Turkies, Partridge, Heath-hens and their young ones tracing passe, The woods and medowes, Achorns eat, and hoppers in the grasse.” Anon., ‘Good News from New England,” 1648. Amonc the writings of the early travelers and explorers of this region, as well as in the histories written from time to time of the old towns of Essex County, occasional references are found to the birds, and some of these are of great interest to ornithologists. Several’ of these references are to birds that are now extirpated from this part of the country, while in two cases the species have become extinct. Many other birds, especially those used for food, are now rare or even only accidental in the County. ‘ The immense numbers of waterfowl of all kinds in the early days of this part of the country are attested by all the older writers. The history of one of these waterfowl, now extinct, namely, the Great Auk (Plautus tmpennis) is so interesting that I have gone outside of the County in order to give it briefly in detail. The last specimen of this bird was killed by Eldey, off the southwest point of Iceland, in 1844, the last living bird was seen in 1852, and a dead specimen was picked up in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, in 1853.1 The Great Auk was not, as popularly supposed, a bird of the polar seas, but ranged from Iceland to the Bay of Biscay on the eastern, and from Greenland to Virginia on the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The most important breeding sta- tion on our shores was Funk Island, off Newfoundland, from which large stores of its bones and even mummified remains have been brought by Stewitz, in 1841, Milne, in 1874, and especially by Lucas, in 1887.2. The extinction of this inter- esting bird was undoubtedly due to man. Its breeding stations were visited for 'John Macoun: Catalogue of Canadian Birds, part 1, p. 26, 1900. 2 Alfred Newton: Dictionary of Birds, article “Gare Fowl,” 1893-96; also Charles Dixon: Lost and Vanishing Birds, p. 87, 1898. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 61 years, and the birds were ruthlessly slaughtered for food and fish-bait, while the latest survivors were killed by expeditions fitted out for the purpose of supply- ing the various museums and collectors. Great Auks were often called Penguins and an old gunner, residing at Chelsea Beach, assured Audubon that he “ weil remembered the time when the Penguins were plentiful about Nahant and some other islands in the bay.’”? Putnam ? records the finding of a humerus of this bird at Ipswich by Baird, in August, 1866, and many bones of the Auk were found by Maynard? in the shellheaps there, in 1867, and by Maynard and Allen, in 1868. Richard Whitbourne in his Voyage to Newfoundland, in 1618, naively throws light on the extinction of this bird. He says: “These Penguins are as bigge as geese, and fly not, for they have but little short wings, and they multi- ply so infinitely, upon a certain flat Island that men drive them from thence upon a board into their Boats by hundreds at a time; as if God had made the innocencie of so poore a creature to become such an admirable instrument for the sustentation of man.’ Alas, poor “ Penguin”! Would that you could have “ multiplied infinitely ” so that the present generation of bird-lovers might have enjoyed and fostered you! Cormorants, the Double-crested (Phalacrocorax dilophus) and Common (P. carbo), although still common migrants were very abundant in the early days of the County, and the former and possibly the latter, bred here. Wood,‘ writ- ing in 1634, says: ‘Cormorants bee as common as other fowles, which destroy abundance of small fish....they use to roost upon the tops of trees, and rockes, being a very heavy, drowsie creature, so that the /zdians will go in their Cannowes in the night, and take them from the Rockes, as easily as women take a Hen from roost.” Josselyn,5 in 1675, gives a fuller account of this as fol- lows: “We must not forget the Cormorant, Shape or Sharke; though I cannot commend them to our curious palats, the /dians will eat them when they are fley’d, they take them prettily, they roost in the night upon some Rock that lyes out in the Sea, thither the /zdzan goes in his Birch-Cazow when the Moon shines clear, and when he is come almost to it, he lets his Canow drive on of it self, when he is come under the Rock he shoves his Boat along till he come just under the Cormorants watchman, the rest being asleep, and so soundly do sleep that they will snore like so many Piggs; the /zdian thrusts up his hand of a sudden, grasping the watchman so hard round about his neck that he 1J. J. Audubon: The Birds of America, vol. 7, p. 245, 1844. 2F, W. Putnam: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 5, p. 310, 1868. 3C, J. Maynard: The Naturalist’s Guide, p. 159, 1870. 4’Wm. Wood: New England’s Prospect, 1634; p. 33 of 1865 reprint. ® John Josselyn: An Account of two Voyages to New England, 1675; p. 279 of 1833 reprint. 62 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. cannot cry out; as soon as he hath him in his Cazow he wrings off his head, and making his Cazow fast, he clambreth to the top of the Rock, where walking softly he takes them up as he pleaseth, still wringing off their heads; when he hath slain as many as his Cazow can carry, he gives a shout which awakens the surviving Cormorants, who are gone in an instant.” ! The Pied or Labrador Duck (Camptolaimus labradorius), which has been seen in the flesh by men now living, has, like the Great Auk, become extinct. Eliot,” who saw a considerable number of these birds at various times between 1860 and 1870 in the markets of New York, believes that all the alleged causes for the disappearance of this Duck are unsatisfactory, while Newton’ has no doubt that the shooting down of nesting birds witnessed by Audubon on the rocky islands off the Labrador coast, and carried on with increasing intensity year by year, could produce no other result. Two males were killed in November, 1844, by Nicholas Pike at the mouth of the Ipswich River. One of these birds is now in the collection of the Long Island Historical Society of Brooklyn, N. Y* A female was shot at Swampscott in September, 1862, by Mr. Arthur Thomas? C. J. Maynard® says that he thinks he saw one of these birds in Plum Island River in the winter of about 1872. In the fall of 1874, J. Wallace killed a Labrador Duck at Long Island, and the latest record of its capture anywhere was by Gregg’ at Elmira, N. Y., on December 12th, 1878. Snow Geese (Chen hyperborea and C. h. nivalis), accidental at the present day, were probably common in the early times. Thus Wood® writes: “The second kind is a white Goose, almost as big as an English tame Goose, these come in great flockes about Michelmasse [September 29th], sometimes there will be two or three thousand in a flocke, these continue six weekes, and so flye to the southward, returning in March, and staying six weekes more, returning againe to the Northward ; the price of one of these is eight pence.” Morton,® in 1637, says: “There are Geese of three sorts, vize: brant Geese which are pide, and 1In this connection the following written over two hundred years later is of interest: “On dark nights, when the Cormorants are asleep, the Fuegian hunter, hanging by a thong of seal-skin, glides along the cliffs, holding on to jutting points of rock; when near a bird he seizes it with both hands and crushes its head between his teeth, without giving it time to utter a cry or make a move- ment. He then passes on to another, and so continues until some noise puts the Cormorant to flight.” J. Deniker: The Races of Man, 1got. 2D. G. Elliot: The Wild Fowl of the United States and British Possessions, p. 172, 1898. * Alfred Newton: Dictionary of Birds, article “‘ Extermination,” 1893-96. ‘Wm. Dutcher: Auk, vol. 8, p. 205, 1891. 5 Wm. Dutcher: Auk, vol. 11, p. 7, 1894. °C. J. Maynard: Birds of Eastern North America, p. 456, 1881. 7 W.H. Gregg: Amer. Nat., vol. 13, p. 128, 1879. 8 Wm. Wood: New England’s Prospect, 1634; p. 34 of 1865 reprint. ® Thomas Morton: New English Canaan, 1637; p. 189 of 1883 reprint. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 63 white Geese which are bigger, and gray Geese which are as bigg and bigger then the tame Geese of England, with black legges, black bills, heads and necks black; .... There is of them great abundance. I have had often 1000. before the mouth of my gunne.” The Whistling Swan (Olor columbianus), now of accidental occurrence, and probably the Trumpeter Swan (Olor buccinator), never seen now, are frequently referred to by the earlier writers. Wood! says: ‘There be likewise many Swannes which frequent the fresh ponds and rivers, seldome consorting them- selves with Duckes and Geese; these bee very good meate, the price of one is six shillings.” Josselyn? says: ‘* The water-fowl are these that follow, Aookers or wild Swans, Cranes, Geese of three sorts, grey, white, and the brant Goose, the first and last are best meat, the white are lean and tough and live a long time.” Higginson,® writing from Salem in 1630, says: “In winter time this coun- try doth abound with wild geese, wild ducks, and other sea fowle, that a great part of winter the planters have eaten nothing but roast-meate of divers fowles which they have killed.” Cranes, probably the Sandhill Crane (Grus mexicana), long since extirpated in Massachusetts, occurred in the early days of the colony. These birds are thus referred to by Thomas Morton: “Cranes there are greate store, that ever more came there at S. Davids day [March ist], and not before: that day they never would misse. These sometimes eate our corne, and doe pay for their presumption well enough ; and serveth there in powther, with turnips, to supply the place of pow- thered beefe, and is a goodly bird in a dishe, and no discommodity.” Capt. John Smith, in 1616; also speaks of Cranes. This bird is to be distinguished from the Great Blue Heron, which is still a common bird of the County, and which is now sometimes erroneously called a Crane, but, unlike the true Crane, frequents the marshes and feeds on fish, while the Cranes, as Morton says in his account just quoted, “sometimes eate our corne.” The shore birds are spoken of by the early historians, although many of their descriptions leave us much in doubt as to the species. Thus Wood says, “The Humilities or Simplicities (as I may rather call them) bee of two sorts: the biggest being as big as a greene Plover, the other as big as birds we call knots in Eugland. Such is the simplicity of the smaller sorts of these birds, 1 Wm. Wood: New England’s Prospect, 1634; p. 33 of 1865 reprint. 2 John Josselyn: An Account of two Voyages to New England, 1675; p. 278 of 1833 reprint. 3 Francis Higginson: New England's Plantation, 1630; p. 121 of 1792 reprint. 64 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. that one may drive them on a heape like so many sheepe, and seeing a fit time shoot them; the living seeing the dead, settle themselves on the same place againe, amongst which the Fowler discharges againe. I my selfe have killed twelve score at two shootes: these bird are to be had upon sandy brakes at the latter end of Summer before the Geese come in.” Josselyn gives this quaint account of these birds: “There are little Birds that frequent the Sea-shore in flocks called Sanderlins, they are about the big- ness of a Sparrow, and in the fall of the leaf will be all fat; when I was first in the Countrie the Ang/ish cut them into small pieces to put into their Puddings instead of suet, I have known twelve score and above kill’d at two shots.” And Morton says: “Sanderlings are a dainty bird, more full boddied than a Snipe; and I was much delighted to feede on them because they were fatt and easie to come by, because I went but a stepp or to for them: and I have killed betweene foure and five dozen at a shoot, which would loade me home. Their foode is at ebbing water on the sands, of small seeds that grows on weeds there, and are very good pastime in August.” The same kind of “ pas- time”’ and similar methods are used at the present time, but on the much dimin- ished and more wary survivors of former days. The Heath Hen (Zympanuchus cupido) was no doubt formerly common in the pastures and woods of Essex County. It was called the Pheasant in the early days. It was formerly ‘‘so common on the ancient bushy site of the city of Boston, that laboring people or servants stipulated with their employers not to have the Heath-Hen brought to table oftener than a few times in the week |”? The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) was formerly a ranger of Essex County. Capt. John Smith,’ that acute observer, in coasting Cape Ann in 1616, speaks of seeing “ Zurkies” among other birds. Morton says: “ Tur- kies there are, which divers times in great flocks have sallied by our doores ; and then a gunne, being commonly in a redinesse, salutes them with such a court- esie, as makes them take a turne in the Cooke roome. They daunce by the doore so well. Of these there hath bin killed that have weighed forty eight pound a peece.” Higginson says: “Here are likewise aboundance of turkies often killed in the woods, farre greater then our English turkies, and exceeding fat, sweet, and fleshy, for here they have aboundance of feeding all the yeere long, as strawber- } John Josselyn: An Account of two Voyages to New England, 1675; p. 279 of 1833 reprint. ? Thomas Nuttall: A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada, vol. 1, p. 662, 1832. 3 Quoted by F. A. Ober: History of Essex County, by D. H. Hurd, vol. 1, p. 677, 1888. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 65 ries, in summer al places are full of them, and all manner of berries and fruits.” Although the Turkeys have long since departed, wild strawberries still abound. The name “ Turkey Shore”’ still borne by the right bank of Ipswich River, where it meets the waters of the sea within and below the town of Ipswich, was so named, in 1635, according to Felt A quotation from Wm. Wood’s “ New England’s Prospect,” first published in 1634, sheds interesting light on this name. He says, speaking of Turkeys: “In winter when the Snow covers the ground, they resort to the Sea shore to look for Shrimps, & such smal Fishes at low tides. Such as love Turkie hunting, must follow it in winter after a new falne Snow, when hee may follow them by their tracts ; some have killed ten or a dozen in halfe a day; if they can be found towards an evening and watched where they peirch, if one come about ten or eleaven of the clocke he may shoote as often as he will, they will sit, unlesse they be slenderly wounded. These Turkies remaine all the yeare long, the price of a good Turkie cocke is foure shillings; and he is well worth it, for he may be in weight forty pound; a Hen two shillings.” A high hill near the town of Ipswich still bears the name of “ Turkey Hill.” Felt, in 1834, states that the “ Wild Turkey have disappeared from this vicinity.” Bones of the Turkey were found in shellheaps in Ipswich, at Eagle Hill, by Jeffries Wyman,” and at the Treadwell’s Island shellheaps by Robinson According to Howe and Allen,‘ the Wild Turkey “was a common perma- nent resident in the State until about a hundred years ago. It became very rare in the early part of the nineteenth century, being practically extirpated in the *30’s. A few lingered however in the wilder districts about Mounts Tom and Holyoke, and the last specimen actually known to have been captured in the State was shot on Mount Tom in the winter of 1850~’51. It has also been reported as seen on Mount Holyoke as late as 1863, when one was said to have been flushed by a hunting party. Baird, Brewer and Ridgway record it as hav- ing been shot at Montague and in other towns in Franklin County ‘within a few years,’ z. e. prior to 1874.” The Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), now rapidly becoming a bird of the past, was in former days very conspicuous from its vast numbers. Hig- ginson writing of Salem, in about 1630, says: “Upon the eighth of March from after it was faire daylight until about eight of the clock in the forenoon, there flew over all the towns in our plantacons soe many flocke of doues, each flock contayning many thousands, and soe many that they obscured the light, that passeth credit, if but the truth should be written.’ And again: “In the 1J, B. Felt: History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton, 1834. 2 Jeffries Wyman: Amer. Nat., vol. 1, p. 568, 1868. 3 John Robinson: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 14. p. 161, 1882. ‘R. H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen: The Birds of Massachusetts, p. 132, 1901. 66 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. winter time I have seene flockes of pidgeons, and have eaten of them: They doe fly from tree to tree as other birds doe, which our pidgeons will not doe in Eng- land: They are of all colours as ours are, but their wings and tayles are far longer, and therefore it is likely they fly swifter to escape the terrible hawkes in this country.” ? Wood, writing in 1634, says: ‘These Birds come into the Countrey, to goe to the North parts in the beginning of our Spring, at which time (if I may be counted worthy, to be beleeved in a thing that is not so strange as true) I have seene them fly as if the Aeyerie regiment had beene Pigeons; seeing neyther beginning nor ending, length, or breadth of these Millions of Millions. The shouting of people, the ratling of Gunnes, and pelting of small shotte could not drive them out of their course, but so they continued for foure or five houres together: yet it must not be concluded, that it is thus often ; for it is but at the beginning of the Spring, and at Michaelmas [September 29th], when they returne backe to the Southward ; yet are there some all the yeare long, which are easily attayned by such as looke after them. Many of them build amongst the Pine-trees, thirty miles to the North-east of our plantations ; joyning nest to nest, and tree to tree by their nests, so that the Sunne never sees the ground in that place, from whence the /zazans fetch whole loades of them.” Thirty miles northeast of Boston brings us to the region of the Essex Woods mainly composed of white pines—a region where I found Passenger Pigeons in the breeding season in the late seventies. In the Peabody Academy, at Salem, in one of the cases devoted to the birds of Essex County, is a net which was formerly used by Francis Curtis, at Boxford, for capturing Passenger Pigeons. The last flock taken with this net was in the year 1850. In 1872, Wild Pigeons were still common as shown by the following inter- esting quotation:? “In the period of berries, the wild pigeons visit our Cape in flocks. They are less numerous than in former years, but may be seen sometimes in considerable numbers in several of their old haunts; particularly in the pines and the pasture south of them, between Pigeon Cove and Lanesville, within and around Brier Swamp, and in the wood between Folly Point and Lanesville one way, and the Willows and the Ipswich Bay shore the other. But a few summers ago there was, one day, a gathering of two thousand people in this last-named locality, listening to a speech concerning the political affairs of our nation. The speaker, General Butler, stood on a slight elevation in the shade of a wild cherry-tree. It seemed that the tree had been previously visited 1 Francis Higginson: New England’s Plantation, 1630. 2H. C. Leonard: Pigeon Cove and Vicinity, p. 165, 1873. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 67 by pigeons, for its top was thickly studded with black cherries, and in the usual afternoon feeding time of these birds a large flock of them alighted in every part of the tree; and, although evidently surprised to find so great a company of men and women on the ground beneath them, and to hear the general’s husky voice sending forth sentences like rattling shot, they made no haste to fly away. Many minutes passed before they returned to their roosts in the tall white-pines of Brier Swamp. The picture of the quiet crowd listening to the orator, the many-colored costumes, the surrounding tall trees and the thick underbrush, the shining waves of Ipswich Bay discerned through a rift of the wood, and the wild pigeons, some with reddish, and some with pale-blue breasts, distributed through- out the cherry-tree’s top, is a novel and exceedingly pleasant one in the memory. On the day following that of the gathering, from a cover of oaks and pines near the cherry-tree, a young sportsman shot fifteen of this flock of pigeons.” Leon- ard explains the origin of the name Pigeon Cove as follows: “In the long ago time, when the Cove had no name, immense flocks of pigeons, coming over the sea from New Hampshire and Maine towards the Cape, were enveloped and overwhelmed by a storm, and becoming exhausted fell into the waves; so that after the storm had ceased, large numbers of the dead birds were brought by the waves into the Cove, and thrown upon the rocks and beach. Hence the little indentation became Pigeon Cove ; and then the height ascending from it Pigeon Hill.” According to Howe and Allen,! the last authentic record of this bird for the State is in 1889 when a pair bred in Plymouth.” The Northern Raven (Corvus corax principalis), now extirpated from Essex County, was formerly common as is attested by several of the early writers. A few unclassified ornithological references follow. Capt. John Smith? says, in 1616, that in coasting Cape Ann he saw “ Eagles, Gripes, divers sorts of Hawkes, Cranes, Geese, Brantz, Cormorants, Ducks, Sheldrakes, Teals, Meawes, Guls, Turkies, Dive-hoppers, etc., and divers sorts of vermin whose names I know not.” Wood‘ bursts into ornithological rhyme as follows: ‘Th’ Eele-murthering Hearne,® and greedy Cormorant, That neare the Creekes in morish Marshes haunt. The bellowing Bitterne, with the long-leg’d Crane, 1R. H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen: The Birds of Massachusetts, p. 16, Igor. 2H. J. Thayer: Forest and Stream, vol. 33, p. 288, 1889. 3 Quoted by F. A. Ober: History of Essex County, by D. H. Hurd, vol. 1, p. 677, 1888. 4Wm. Wood: New England’s Prospect, 1634; p. 30 of 1865 reprint. 5 Heron. 68 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. Presaging Winters hard, and dearth of graine. The Silver Swan that tunes her mournefull breath, To sing the dirge of her approaching death. The tatling Oldwines, and the cackling Geese, The fearefull Gull that shunnes the murthering Peece. The strong wing’d Mallard, with the nimble Teale, And ill-shape’t Loone who his harsh notes doth squeale. There Widgins, Sheldrackes and Humilitees,1 Snites, Doppers, Sea-Larkes, in whole millions flees.” There is much that is admirably descriptive in these terse lines, and it is interesting to learn that even at this early date the destructive tendencies of man had taught the Gull to be “ fearefull” and to “shunne the murthering Peece.” William Morrell,? writing in 1623, says: “The fowles that in those bays and harbours feede, Though in their seasons they doe else-where breede, Are swans and geese, herne, phesants, duck and crane, Culvers and divers all along the maine: The turtle, eagle, partridge, and the quaile, Knot, plover, pigeons, which doe never faile, Till sommer’s heate commands them to retire, And winter’s cold begets their old desire. With these sweete dainties man is sweetly fed, With these rich feathers ladies plume their head ; Here’s flesh and feathers both for use and ease To feede, adorne, and rest thee, if thou please.” Another ancient writer quoted in Hurd’s History of Essex County (p. 379), rhymes as follows : “ And then of birds we have great store; the eagle soaring high, The owl, the hawk, the woodpecker, the crow of rasping cry, The partridge, quail and wood-pigeon, the plover and wild-goose, And divers other smaller game are here for man, his use. And many more of plumage fair in coo and song are heard ; The whippoorwill, of mournful note, the merry humming-bird.” Felt, in his History of Ipswich, published in 1834, says (p. 48) under the heading of “Fowl.” ‘Animals of this sort have become far less numerous than 1 Willets still bear this name. 2Wm. Morrell: Poem on New England, about 1625; p. 129 of 1792 reprint. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 69 they were two centuries past. Some of them, as the Eagle, Crane, and Partridge, have grown scarce. Others, as the Swan and Wild Turkey, have disappeared from this vicinity. In the summer and autumn, Plovers, Curlews, Yellow-legs, Snipes and Sand-pipers, and in winter, Wild Ducks abound. It was anciently the practice for persons in several parts of the colony, to obtain grants of water privileges, and to furnish themselves with suitable gear, for the purpose of tak- ing fowl.” Blackbirds, Crows, and Blue Jays troubled the thrifty husbandman of this region and sundry laws were enacted from time to time to keep them in check. Thus, in 1734, it was voted in the town of Ipswich, that twelve pence a dozen be paid for the heads of such Blackbirds and Blue Jays as should be killed within the town “upon producing them to the treasurer.” In 1827, it was voted that ten cents be paid for every Crow killed within the limits of this place! Similar laws were passed by Lynn? and various other towns of the County. The results were not all that could be desired? Thus Allen writes: “The traveller, Kalm, relates that Dr. Franklin told him, in 1750, that in con- sequence of the premiums that had been paid for killing these birds in New England, they had become so nearly extirpated there that they were ‘very rarely seen, and in few places only.’ In consequence of this exterminating warfare on the ‘maize-thieves,’ the worms that preyed upon the grass increased so rapidly that in the summer of 1749 the hay crop was almost wholly cut off by them, the planters being obliged to bring hay from Pennsylvania, and even from England, to Massachusetts, to meet the deficiency caused by the worms.” There remain a few miscellaneous references to birds, some of which, espe- cially by the imaginative Josselyn, may fairly be put down as apocryphal. The Rev. William Hubbard,‘ minister of Ipswich, wrote as follows, in 1680: “The like may be said of feathered fowl, especially such as live upon the water, which abound as much here as in any other place. The bird of the greatest rarity in this place, if not in the world, is a small one, not exceeding the bigness of a great bee, called Humbirds, from the noise they make with their wings, while they are flying from one flower to another to suck out the honey; but never set their feet down. Turkies also, and pigeons, (that come in multitudes every sum- mer, almost like the quails that fell round the camp of Israel in the wilderness,) partridges, quails, and all birds of prey, by nature’s instinct, or by conduct of Divine Providence, have found the way into these ends of the earth.” 1J. B. Felt: History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton, p. 49, 1834. 2 Alonzo Lewis: History of Lynn, p. 144, 1829. 3 J. A. Allen: Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club, vol. 1, p. 54, 1876, quoting from Kalm’s Travels, For- ster’s translation, vol. 2, p. 78. 4Wm. Hubbard: The History of New England from the year 1620 to the year 1680; p. 29 of 1878 reprint. 40 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. Josselyn means the Kingbird or perhaps the Purple Martin when he says!: “‘ There is a small Ash-colour Bird that is shaped like a Hawke with talons and beak that falleth upon Crowes, mounting up into the Air after them, and will beat them till they make them cry.” The following is also intelligible:? “The singing Birds are Thrushes with red breasts which will be very fat and are good meat, so are the Zhressels, Filladies are small singing Birds, Minmurders little yellow Birds....and Starlings black as Ravens with scarlet pinions.’ What he means by the following is somewhat obscure: “The Colbry, Viemalin, or rising or walking Bird, are emblemn of the Resurrection, and the wonder of little Birds.” The Hummingbird was evidently a marvel in the eyes of the early explor- ers. Thus Wood says: “The Humbird is one of the wonders of the Countrey, being no bigger than a Hornet, yet hath all the demensions of a Bird, as bill, and wings, with quills, spider-like legges, small clawes: For colour, she is as glo- rious as the Raine-bow ; as she flies, she makes a little humming noise like a Hum- ble-bee: wherefore shee is called the Humbird.” The earliest local list for Essex County is the Catalogue of Birds noticed in the Vicinity of Lynn during the Years of 1844—'5—’6, by J. B. Holder, published in 1846, by the Lynn Natural History Society. This is a list of 185 species. The only list of birds for the whole of Essex County is that of F. W. Putnam entitled Catalogue of the Birds of Essex County, Massachusetts, and pub- lished in the Proceedings of the Essex Institute, volume 1, page 201, 1856. He gives as birds of the County, 235; accidental visitors, 10; making a total of 245. Twelve of these are omitted in my list as of doubtful, erroneous, or apocryphal record. Putnam states that there were 48 other birds known to have been found in the State but not in Essex County, making a total for the State, according to him, of 293. Robinson,? in his introduction to Hurd’s His- tory of Essex County, in 1888, put the number of birds for Essex County at 266. Mr. C. J. Maynard published, in 1870, in his Naturalist’s Guide, a Cata- logue of the Birds of Eastern Massachusetts, and although this includes much more than Essex County, it is of especial interest here, as the author had for several years been living at Ipswich, and many of the observations were made there. In this list, in the edition of 1873, page 161, he states that “the whole number of birds belonging to the fauna of eastern Massachusetts is two hundred and ninety-nine, as will be seen by the Catalogue.” In this connection it is * John Josselyn: An Account of two Voyages to New England, 1675; p. 275 of 1833 reprint. 2 John Josselyn: zdzd., p. 278. 4 ° John Robinson : in Hurd’s History of Essex County, Massachusetts, vol. 1, p. lxxxii, 1888, BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 71 interesting to trace the increase in the number of recognized species of birds for the State as given in the following table from Dr. J. A. Allen’s! List for 1878. 1833 Emmons 157 species. 1837 Brewer 197“ 1839 Peabody 251 <« 1856 Putnam 275 | 1864 Samuels 261 « 1864 Allen 282 =“ 1870 Allen 2905 «* 1870 Maynard 289 =“ 1875 Brewer 308 «= 1878 Allen 316 In 1886, Dr. Allen? gave a list of 340 species, 4 extirpated, 19 of probable occurrence, 1 doubtful, and 4 introduced. The latest list for the State, published in rgo1, is that of R. H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen. This was: Recognized species 362 Extirpated species 4 Extinct species 2 Introduced species 15 Species erroneously recorded 17 Apocryphal species 2 One of the most interesting ornithological events in Essex County was the discovery by Mr. C. J. Maynard, in 1868, of the Ipswich Sparrow. The names of other ornithological workers in these fields, and there are many, — are given in the bibliography and in the list of correspondents in the introduc- tion to the Annotated List. Mr. George O. Welch is the only living worker of a veteran band of collectors and taxidermists who have added so much to our knowledge of the ornithology of Essex County. Jillson, Tufts, and Vickary are no longer living. Before closing this chapter, a few remarks on my own observations on the changes in the birds of the County during the last twenty-eight years may be added. Changes of this sort generally occur so slowly that it is difficult to ‘J. A. Allen: Proc, Essex Inst., vol. 10, p. 10, 1878. 2jJ. A. Allen: Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 1, p. 221, 1886. 7R. H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen: The Birds of Massachusetts, 1901. 42 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. recognize them, and sweeping statements are sometimes made from impressions that are often erroneous. There is no doubt, however, but that the shore birds have diminished in numbers during these years, yet years of plenty occur now, and years of scarcity occurred twenty-five years ago. A July and August free from easterly storms, and with few thunder showers, will allow many of the shore birds to omit our shores from their feeding and resting places, —and they are dangerous ones for them, —and to fly south outside. This was largely the case in 1904, while in 1903 there were more than twice as many shore birds to be found here. While the Gulls and Terns diminished during the early years of this period, they have noticeably increased during the last few years, owing to the efforts of the Audubon Society in influencing public sentiment on the subject of Terns’ feathers in hats, in protecting the birds from being shot here, and especially in safeguarding their breeding places on the rocky islands of the Maine coast. Although many of the Ducks show sadly diminished ranks, the Scoters are often as abundant during the migrations as they were twenty-five years ago. The establishment of public reservations where shooting is forbidden, is doing a great deal to bring back former conditions. The Ducks are learning the security of the ponds, and the shore birds and Gulls are flocking to the beaches thus protected. Of the Hawks, the numbers are constantly diminishing, owing to the cutting off of the large nesting-trees, although the Red-shouldered Hawk holds its own remarkably well. The most obvious changes have occurred among the smaller birds owing to the unfortunate introduction of the English Sparrow. In the late seventies none of these pests were to be found in villages like Magnolia, and they remained in the larger cities until early in the eighties. Then they spread to the smaller towns and villages, and they are now taking up their residence in outlying farms. Wherever they go, they take possession sooner or later of all bird boxes, driving out Purple Martins, Tree Swallows, House Wrens, and Blue- birds. As a consequence these useful and beautiful native birds have all diminished in numbers, with the possible exception of the Bluebird, which, after its decimation by the storms in 1896, has apparently entirely recouped itself. Tree Swallows, while they have diminished very much in towns and villages, still gather in undiminished numbers in the autumn migrations along the seashore. While many of the smaller birds, particularly the box-dwellers, have been persecuted and driven out by the English Sparrow, the Baltimore Oriole and Warbling Vireo, dwelling high up in the tall elms, hold their own. The Bronzed Grackle has apparently increased in the vicinity of man, and appears to be held in dread by the English Sparrow, on whose fat nestlings the Grackle undoubtedly occasionally dines. The Rose-breasted Grosbeak has certainly increased in num- BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 73 bers to a considerable extent in the last quarter of a century, and the same is true to a less degree of the Golden-winged Warbler. Another alien biped has made inroads among our song birds both with the gun and with bird-lime. I refer to Italian workmen who are employed so largely of late years in some parts of the County. They shoot every bird in sight from a Chickadee to a Robin. One arrested in the Swampscott Woods on November 3d, 1903, had twenty-three Robins in his possession! Still another alien has indirectly diminished the native birds, namely the gipsy moth. In the efforts to exterminate this pest, the underbrush at Swampscott has been cut and burned, interfering with the breeding places of such interesting birds as the White-eyed Vireo and Yellow-breasted Chat. The prolonged rain storm of June, 1903, nearly exterminated the Purple Martins of Essex County, and it is doubtful if they will return, as the English Sparrow is in full possession of many of their houses. The Swifts, Red-winged Blackbirds, Tree Swallows, Eave Swallows, and many other birds suffered by the same storm, and some of our resident birds were decimated by the unusually severe winter that followed. In fact, there would be scarcely a Bob-white in the County to-day, if a fresh stock of this bird had not been introduced by sports- men the following spring. 74 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. CHAPTER X. ANNOTATED LIST OF THE BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. INTRODUCTION. In the List of the Birds of Essex County I have availed myself of six sources of information, as follows: (1) published records; (2) written and verbal communications ; (3) collections of specimens ; (4) sportsmen’s records ; (5) lighthouse records ; (6) personal observations. (1) The references to published records are given in the list, and the whole bibliography is arranged at the end of the memoir in alphabetical order by authors. (2) I am indebted to a great many individuals for generously furnishing me with notes and observations on the birds of Essex County, and to some for specimens. To all of these I wish to express my sincere thanks. Their names are as follows: W. P. Alcott, Carolyn E. Allen, F. H. Allen, G. M. Allen, Outram Bangs, C. F. Batchelder, F. G. Blake, M. C. Blake, Harold Bowditch, T. S. Bradlee, William Brewster, Laurence Brooks, C. E. Brown, A. P. Chad- bourne, M.D., H. F. Chase, A. H. Clark, Walter Deane, J. M. Dodge, A. A. Eaton, Guy Emerson, R. S. Eustis, J. A. Farley, Walter Faxon, Gertrude B. Goldsmith, Lila G. Goldsmith, J. L. Goodale, M.D., S. D. Gray, J. H. Hardy, Jr., Ralph Hoffmann, R. H. Howe, Jr., W. A. Jeffries, C. H. Keith, F. H. Kennard, H. W. King, Sarah E. Lakeman, R. C. Larcom, C. W. Loud, G. M. Magee, C. J. Maynard, F. B. McKechnie, L. Moses, J. T. Nichols, S. M. Noyes, W. R. Peabody, J. C. Phillips, M.D., H. A. Purdie, A. L. Reagh, M.D., C. H. Russell, Ellen W. Sayward, J. H. Sears, L. A. Shaw, H. M. Spelman, A. F. Tarr, Brad- ford Torrey, H. M. Turner, W. H. Vivian, M. A. Walton, T. W. Wardley, G. O. Welch, T. C. Wilson, G. L. Woodbury, H. W. Wright, C. O. Zerrahn. (3) I have examined the following public collections of specimens : Peabody Academy of Science at Salem, Essex County collection, a very large and interesting one; Boston Society of Natural History, New England collection ; Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge ; Public Library of City of Lawrence, collection belonging to Lawrence Natural History Society ; Ipswich Historical Society, small collection made by Mr. Joseph I. Horton; Lynn Natu- BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 75 ral History Society, the battered remains of the collection formerly belonging to this society, long since disbanded ; collection of Brookline High School. I have also examined the private collections of the following: William Brewster, Cambridge; H. M. Spelman, Cambridge; C. F. Batchelder, Cam- bridge ; W. A. Jeffries, Boston, mostly collected by the late Dr. J. A. Jeffries ; Dr. A. P. Chadbourne, Boston; Dr. J. L. Goodale, Boston; of the late Dr. Charles Palmer, Ipswich; Dr. F. H. Stockwell, Ipswich ; C. H. Houghton, Row- ley ; Richard Lufkin, Gloucester ; and my own collection in Boston. (4) The gunners who shoot for pleasure or for the market or cater to vis- iting sportsmen with blinds, decoys, and ducking-boats, or the men left in charge of live decoys at ducking-blinds have opportunities that the most zealous scien- tific collector lacks. They are on the grounds with gun in hand throughout the entire season, often staying in the blinds all day long. Their observations, if they could be relied upon, would be of the greatest value, but unfortunately in many cases their lack of scientific accuracy is plainly apparent. With the best intentions, ignorance of the specific differences, often slight, combined with an inaccurate memory and an enthusiasm for the sport, tend to render many of their observations of doubtful value. In fact, I regret to say, some gunners appear to prefer romancing (to put it mildly) to telling the truth, for gunners, like fish- ermen, are noted for their good stories. Another difficulty arises from the fact that there are so many names, often very local, for the waterfowl and shore birds. In the following list I have endeavored to record some of these names. Meeting the gunner in the field and actually seeing his freshly killed birds, one obtains of course reliable records. The statement that such and such a bird was shot and is now ina certain collection can of course be definitely shown to be true or false. There is, however, one well known case in Essex County where even this test was found to be valueless, for the wretched collector had obtained rare bird skins from a distance, and fraudulently palmed them off as birds of this locality. The fraud was fortunately soon discovered, and the criminal held up to the deserved finger of scorn in the pages of The Auk (vol. 1, p. 295, 1884). This happened some twenty years ago, in 1884. I have been so fortunate as to obtain from Dr. John C. Phillips, a good ornithologist as well as sportsman, the careful and accurate records of his shoot- ing-stand at Wenham Lake for the years 1900 to 1904 inclusive, already detailed in Chapter VII. I am also indebted to Mr. Thomas C. Wilson, a professional gunner at Ipswich, for observations, records, and specimens. His knowledge of shore and sea birds, extending over thirty years, is unusually good, and his state- ments I have always found to be conservative and reliable. (5) The lighthouse records I have already spoken of in Chapter VIII. 76 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. (6) My own personal observations and records in Essex County began with a summer spent partly at Danvers and partly at Marblehead, in 1875. Four summers were spent at Magnolia, 1876 to 1879 inclusive, and occasional visits were made during the winter to this region, extending on several occasions to a week in duration. My ornithological excursions in these years, which were years of active collecting represented now by specimens and notes, extended from Manchester along the coast to the end of Cape Ann and through the Essex Woods, then regularly frequented by the Passenger Pigeon, to Coffin’s Beach and the Essex Marshes. From 1880 to 1892, there is, with a few exceptions, a gap in my own records for this region, but since then I have spent my summer vacations at Ipswich, and have made as many winter expeditions there as possible from my home in Boston, visiting also other parts of the County in both summer and winter. Although these visits in winter have. necessarily been brief, not over twenty-four or thirty-six hours long, and generally not oftener than once a month, yet in the series of years I have covered at least every week of the winter. Visits in spring and autumn have been much more frequent. In the following list, the species are numbered consecutively and a second number, which is bracketed, is that of the Check-List of the American Orni- thologists’ Union whose nomenclature, corrected up to July, 1904, is used. The names enclosed in quotation marks are those that are familiarly used in Essex County, some being quite local. The earliest and latest dates of arrival and departure are given, very unusual dates being in parentheses. In some cases the average date for a number of years is entered, and further particulars are often to be found in the annotations. The dates following the word Zggs are dates between which eggs have been found in the County. All dates are from records in my possession. The observations of habits, and so forth, are my own, unless otherwise stated. Where published records are mentioned, the references are always given. Extinct and extirpated species are introduced in the proper order, and have the Check-List number, but they are not numbered with the recognized species and are distinguished by being put in smaller print. The species of doubtful and of erroneous record are designated in the same way, the text showing to which class the particular species belongs. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. a4 ANNOTATED LIST. 1 [2] Colymbus holbcellii (Reinh.). HoLec@y’s GREBE. Not uncommon winter visitor ; October 15 to May 24. This is the least common of the three Grebes in Essex County. During the migrations it occasionally visits the ponds, but it is more frequently found in the salt water. As many as five or six may sometimes be seen together in the autumn off Ipswich Beach. In habits it closely resembles the Horned Grebe. The bird with which the Holbcell’s Grebe is most likely to be confused on the seashore, is the Red-throated Diver, but its smaller size and especially its shorter bill and more delicate neck distinguish it on the water. In flight, the white patch on the wing of the Grebe at once distinguishes it from the Diver. It differs from the Horned Grebe in being considerably larger in size. 2 [3] Colymbus auritus Linn. Hornep GREBE; “ DEVIL—DIVER”; “ HELL-DIVER.” Common winter visitor ; October 1 to May 6. Although common off sandy beaches and in salt creeks, the Horned Grebe is most often found in winter along rocky shores, singly and in small flocks. During the migrations, when, like many other winter sea birds, it is most abun- dant, it also swims in ponds and rivers, but less often than its fresh-water cousin, the Dabchick. On October 1st, 1904, Dr. J. C. Phillips saw a flock of twenty-six of these birds at Wenham Lake, and I saw as many as forty-three together that same October off the beach at Ipswich. Such numbers are, how- ever, unusual. The common names of the Grebe are due to its skill in diving at the flash of the gun, eluding even the swift shot. This, although it seems impossible, is true even where the modern breech-loading gun is used. The bird apparently sees the flash at the muzzle of the gun and dives before the shot reaches it. Of course with the old flint-lock the bird had plenty of leisure to escape under water. 78 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. The canny gunner waits till the bird dives, then runs down perhaps by two or three stages to the water’s edge, and if he is so fortunate as to see the bird before it sees him, and to fire just as it emerges from the water, the deed is done. The same tactics followed by the bird-watcher, who remains motionless and prone when the bird is above water, will often allow of a close approach. The diving of this Grebe is often a beautiful piece of work. The bird springs vigorously upward and forward, the bill cleaves the water on the down- ward curve just as the feet leave it, while the whole body describes an arc. The wings are closely applied to the sides, and do not flop out as in the Adczdz, where they are used for flight under water. In the Grebes the feet are the propelling power in the forceful initial spring, and in the movements below the water. That the wings are kept close to the sides under water I have been able to observe when the Grebes were borne up in the advancing rollers on Ipswich Beach. The clear water before the waves broke revealed the diving birds. The full beginning of the dive, as described above, is often curtailed in all degrees, so that the head is below water before the feet emerge, or the jump is lost entirely, and the bird disappears suddenly with a vigorous kick, or mysteriously and quietly sézks in the water. The duration under water depends somewhat on its depth as well as on the abundance of food there. Thus a Grebe close to the rocks stayed under from 30 to 35 seconds, while the same bird a short distance out was under water from 45 to 50 seconds each time. They often remain below the surface longer than this. Grebes ride buoyantly on the surface, looking about inquisitively, occasion- ally peering into the water, and frequently shaking the head nervously from side to side. A foot is sometimes raised over the back in a comical manner, or they turn partly over to preen themselves. One may sometimes find a Grebe asleep with bill and half his head thrust down into the feathers of the breast. I have seen a bird thus asleep heading up into the wind and keeping in the same place by the alternate paddling of the legs, the shining, silky breast showing conspicuously. At first sight it looked like a buoy partly coated with ice, with a black knob, the head, on top. The fact that it was stationary on the waves added to the illusion. A loud whistle served to make the bird extract its head from the feathers and look about. Horned Grebes, like the other members of the family, are very rarely seen flying, preferring to escape by diving and swimming off. It is very difficult for them to get under way in flight, and they patter along the water for some dis- tance, running as it were, on the waves, using the feet alternately. Besides grass and other vegetable matter, beetles, and small crustaceans, I have found numerous feathers in these birds’ stomachs. The feathers were apparently plucked from their own breasts. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 79 The Horned Grebe is intermediate in size between the Holbcell’s Grebe, which is considerably larger, and the Dabchick which is only a little smaller. The latter bird is, however, very rarely to be found on the ocean, and may be distinguished also by its brownish upper breast. All the Horned Grebes seen in the autumn are in immature or winter plumage. In flight, the white tips of the secondary wing feathers are noticeable. 3 [6] Podilymbus podiceps (Linn.). PIED-BILLED GREBE; Dascuick; “HELL-DIvER”; “WaATER-—WITCH.” Transient visitor, rare in spring, common in autumn ; spring; August 9 to December 1. It is possible that this Grebe breeds in Essex County, but I have no direct evidence of it. The August 9th record was of a young female shot by J. A. Jeffries, at Swampscott, in 1879. The Dabchick frequents fresh water, rarely being found on the ocean. I have, however, a specimen I shot off the rocky shore at Swampscott, on October 7th, 1883. Its habits are similar to those of the Horned Grebe. It is a ready diver and like that bird it can also sink below the surface without diving. My notes of November 5th, 1882, of a bird observed in the Shawsheen River, illus- trate this latter habit. While sitting on the bank I several times noticed a movement in the water like the quick motions of an animal coming to the sur- face to breathe. Presently for a very brief space of time a Dabchick appeared on the surface, but as quickly disappeared by quietly sinking in the water. After that, although I watched for half an hour, I did not see the whole bird again, but several times saw its bill projecting above water for a moment for a breath of air. The small size and grebe characteristics as well as the brownish upper breast easily distinguish the Dabchick from other waterfowls. Its bill is stouter and less pointed than that of its cousin the Horned Grebe. Podiceps cristatus Lath. Crestep Grese. An Old World species erroneously noted by many of the older writers. Putnam! enters it in.his Essex County list as “Winter. Common,” and Maynard? records it as ““‘Common during autumn and winter.” There is not a specimen in existence of American origin.® 1F, W. Putnam: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 1, p. 223, 1856. 2C. J. Maynard: The Naturalist’s Guide, p. 158, 1870. 3T. M. Brewer: Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club, vol. 3, p. 52, 1878. Laboratory of Orithelesy Biyae 459 Sapsucker Wo Cornell Universi* Ithaca, New Yu: 80 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 4 [7] Gavia imber (Gunn.). Loon ; GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. Abundant transient visitor, common in winter ; a few non-breeding birds pass the summer ; September 1 to June 5 (July and August). The Loon is a familiar bird along the coast. In the migrations they fly singly and in flocks of four or five, while on rare occasions as many as twelve have been seen together. At these seasons they occasionally drop into the ponds but as a rule the ocean is where they are chiefly to be found. One may be at some distance from the water and hear their loud mournful call, and looking up, see these huge, cutter-built birds piercing the air with great speed. Their long pointed bills and necks are stretched straight out in front, their great feet stick out like a rudder behind, and their small pointed wings move with marvelous rapidity to support the great body. I remember years ago at Man- chester shooting one of these fellows as he flew over a field on a winter’s morning. Although he was killed, his impetus carried him a long distance, and he finally brought up at a stone wall. As a rule the shot patter harmlessly against the well feathered sides of these birds, a fatal penetration occurring only by a lucky or unlucky accident. On the water it is almost impossible to shoot them, owing to their wariness and the rapidity with which they dive. In fact they are approaching the wingless condition, as they are more at home under the water than in the air, and it is evident that they can advance faster under water than on its surface. Thus on one occasion I was watching a Loon swimming about, dipping his head under water from time to time on the lookout for food. The cry of another Loon was heard at a distance and my friend immediately dove in the direction of the other, and, appearing on the surface for a moment, dove again and again until he reached his companion. At another time on the Maine coast while watching a flock of young .Red-breasted Mergansers swim- ming off the shore, I noticed a movement as of a large fish on the water outside. The Mergansers at once flapped in alarm along the surface of the water towards the shore where I was hidden and I soon saw that a Loon was chasing them, following them under water. The Mergansers gained the shore and scrambled up on the rocks, while the disappointed Loon swam about outside. On calm days Loons do not rise from the water, and they are probably unable to do so. A fisherman told me of catching a Loon on a calm day in a narrow inlet of the ice from which escape by diving was impossible. Nothing is more weird and mournful than the wail of this bird heard at night, or more diabolical than its ringing “laughter” as it is called. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 81 Their larger size distinguishes them from the Red-throated Diver, but on the ocean, size is often deceptive. In the adult plumage, however, there is no difficulty in distinguishing the birds, and generally the larger body and head in proportion to the neck make it easy to recognize them. In the immature and winter plumage, the absence of white spots on the back serves to distinguish the Loon from the smaller Diver. Moulting takes place and the white spots begin to appear as early as the middle of February. {9] Gavia arcticus (Linn.). BLACK-THROATED Diver. An arctic bird rare or casual in winter in the northerly parts of the United States. Given by Putnam! as “Adult, rare.” It is probable that young of G. lumme were mistaken for it, although its occurrence on the coast is not impossible. I can, however, find no specimens for Essex County to confirm this supposi- tion, and the bird is excluded from Howe and Allen’s List.? 5 [11] Gavia lumme (Gunn.). RED-THROATED Diver; “Cape Race”; “Cape Racer”; “SCAPE-GRACE.” Abundant transient visitor in the autumn, uncommon in late winter and spring ; August 27 to April 8. The Red-throated Diver is a lover of salt water, very rarely, in Essex County, entering the fresh-water ponds and rivers. In the autumn, flocks of from three or four up to a dozen, all in immature and winter plumage, are com- monly to be found feeding off the beaches. In habits and call notes they closely resemble their larger cousin. I have sometimes amused myself, as also with the Loon, by calling or “tolling” in a flock of these birds by sitting still on the shore and waving a hat or handker- chief on a stick. When the birds see the handkerchief they huddle together, appear to look at each other enquiringly, utter in low and conversational tones their laughing cry, and begin to swim slowly in towards the curious object, fre- quently pausing to talk it over. About one hundred and fifty yards is the nearest point to which I can entice them. Like all waterfowl, the Red-throated Diver devotes much time to preening his feathers and hunting for concealed enemies. One may often be seen turn- ing over nearly on his back with one leg waving frantically in the air, the other in the water keeping the balance, while the bird vigorously preens the feathers of the breast and abdomen. The sudden change in appearance, owing to their 1F, W. Putnam: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 1, p. 223, 1856. 2R, H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen: The Birds of Massachusetts, p. 21, I9oI. 82 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. turning belly upwards, from a dark bird to a white one is at first confusing. They frequently stand up erect in the water and flap their wings, or lie low washing the water through their wing feathers. When fishing they swim along, thrusting their long bill and head from time to time into the water looking for the fish, and suddenly disappear with but little apparent effort, leaving only a ripple behind them. Sometimes they bring the fish to the surface and seem to have difficulty in swallowing it, occasionally dropping it on the water and pick- ing it up again. Stearns and Coues! mention a perfect albino, in the collection of Mr. Ruthven Deane, which was shot in Salem Harbor. The differential points in the recognition of the Red-throated Diver are given under Loon and Holbeell’s Grebe. 6 [13] Fratercula arctica (Linn.). Purrin; “Sea Parrot”; “ PaRoQuEsT.” Not uncommon winter visitor ; October 16 to March. The Puffin, while on our coast, prefers the waters off the rocky headlands, especially at the end of Cape Ann. There is, however, a specimen in the col- lection of the Peabody Academy, taken in Plum Island River,— the sound back of Plum Island,— on February 15th, 1884. At Rockport the fishermen are familiar with this bird and call them “ Paroqueets.” Puffins ride lightly on the water and are expert divers. They are tame birds and easily approached. Their flight is rapid and direct, the bird often swaying first to one side and then to the other like all the Adzde. Puffins look like small Ducks, very short and chubby and entirely destitute of neck. In the late winter the light gray, almost white, of their cheeks con- trasts with the black ring or collar, while in the fall and early winter this con- trast, although plainly visible, is not so marked, for the cheeks are darker, more mouse color. The bill, too, which in nuptial plumage is so large and parrot-like, is considerably smaller in winter, but is still characteristic in shape. 1 W. A. Stearns and Elliott Coues: New England Bird Life, part 2, p. 390, 1883. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 83 7 [27] Cepphus grylle (Linn). Brack GuILLemMoT; “Sra PicEon.” Common winter visitor; September to April 19. This bird is to be found off rocky shores, as at Rockport on the end of Cape Ann and less frequently off Nahant. It is a shy bird and difficult to approach. It is generally seen singly or two or three together. While swim- ming, the Sea Pigeon nervously ducks its head at frequent intervals, appearing to be dabbing at the water. It goes under water with a flop, both wings partly spread so as to be ready for the first stroke, for, like all the Adzde and unlike the Grebes, it actually flies through the water, using its wings for propulsion. The small dark tail bobs up as the bird disappears, and on rear view its red feet may sometimes be seen. Its aerial flight is very direct, generally close to the water, and its short pointed bill, and especially the white of the wing, are very conspicuous. It generally sways slightly from side to side in flight. Just before alighting it often circles about, glides, flaps its wings quickly, and suddenly settles on the water. I have seen two chasing each other off Rockport in January making the water foam. Occasionally one would dodge the other by diving under water, reappearing quickly a few yards off. I once saw two squatting side by side on a partly submerged timber floating in the sea, and my companion mistook them for wooden decoys. The only sound I have heard the bird utter is a hissing or whistling sound when suddenly alarmed. The Black Guillemot is in the white or mottled white plumage during most of its stay on the Essex County coast, and for that reason may escape notice on a sea covered with white-caps. In April, birds may be found that still retain most of the whiteness of winter, while others have nearly completed their spring moult. There is a specimen in the Peabody Academy at Salem, collected April 6th, 1891, at Marblehead, which is in full black summer plumage. In this plum- age it is easily recognized as it is totally black and has a large white wing patch which is plainly visible when the bird is swimming as well as when it is flying. This wing patch is also noticeable in the winter plumage as the rest of the wing even then is dark. Its small size, short neck, and pointed bill distinguish it in any plumage. I have seen its red legs both as it flew and just as it dove. The other white sea bird in winter with which it might be confused is the Old Squaw, but the larger size, longer neck, and the head markings of the latter bird distin- guish it. 84 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. [30] Uriatroile (Linn.). Murre. This bird is stated by Putnam! and by Maynard? to be not uncommon in winter off the coast. I have not observed the bird here and have seen no specimen from the County. Howe and Allen omit it from their list of the birds of Massa- chusetts. 8 [31] Uria lomvia (Linn.). Brunnicy’s Murre; Murre; “Ick—pirp.” Not uncommon winter visitor; November 21 to February 21. The Briinnich’s Murre is to be found in winter off rocky promontories, especially that of Cape Ann. I have, however, seen several in Lynn Harbor and I once picked one up dead on Ipswich Beach. They are generally very tame and unsuspicious birds. Herbert K. Job ® relates: “One bitter December morning, with the mercury at zero, I watched a group of Murres in Lynn Harbor, off Nahant. There was a channel-post that sloped considerably with the tide, and these Murres would waddle up the incline, sit awhile, then dive headlong, and climb up again seeming to greatly enjoy the sport.” The only bird for which the Briinnich’s Murre could be mistaken on this coast is the Razor-billed Auk. The points of distinction will be considered under that bird. 9 [32] Alca torda Linn. RaAZzoR-BILLED AUK; “TINKER”; “ICE—BIRD.” Not uncommon winter visitor ; November 22 to February 11. There is a record in the catalogue of the Peabody Academy collection of a head of this bird found on Ipswich Beach as late as April, in 1885. This of course gives no clue to the time when the bird was alive. They undoubtedly stay later than February 11th, but that is the latest record I have. The first time I saw these birds on our coast was in November, off the beach at Ipswich. There were three of them and I made a note of their black backs and heads and pure white breasts, that their bills appeared pointed and 1F. W. Putnam : Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 1, p. 222, 1856. 2C. J. Maynard: The Naturalist’s Guide, p. 159, 1870. 3H. K. Job: Among the Water-Fowl, p. 92, 1903. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 85 that they paddled along like the chunky Little Auk. I labeled them Briinnich’s Murres or immature Razor-billed Auks and drew a rough sketch of one of them. Learning some time later that the cocked-up tail of the Auk when swimming always distinguishes him from the Murre I sought my notes. The sketch showed a tail pointing vertically upwards! The lesson is obvious. In the adult, the larger bill of the Auk distinguishes the bird from the Murre, but in the immature Auk the bill is almost as small as that of the Murre. Both birds are short-necked and stout, black above and white below. {33]| Plautus impennis (Linn.). Great Aux; “Prncuin.” Long since extinct but for- merly common on our shores (see page 60). . 10 [34] Alle alle (Linn.). Dovekie; Litre Aux; “Pine Knorr”; “Kworty ”; “Ick—Birp.” Winter visitor, varying irregularly from uncommon to abundant ; Novem- ber 4 to April 30. Although the Dovekie is found every winter off the coast, especially at the end of Cape Ann, it is only exceptionally that it is found in numbers near the beaches and general coast line. By sailing off from Rockport in winter one may find them outside of the Salvages which are three miles from Rockport, and sometimes a few may be seen nearer shore than this. In the exceptional years Dovekies are found abundantly not only along the whole coast, but even in the harbors, creeks, and rivers, and they not infrequently reach the ponds and marshes several miles from the sea. One of the largest visitations of the Dovekies was in the winter of 1877- 78, and I found them common at Magnolia then and took note of their inter- esting ways. They were very tame and unsuspicious, permitting a close approach. They occurred singly and in small flocks. From a point above them on the rocks I watched them use their wings in flight under water, and they preferred to escape in this way when disturbed. They rarely resorted to aerial flight. The only time I heard any of them make a sound was on one occasion when after firing my gun from a rock jutting out over the ocean, a Dovekie came swimming by uttering a sharp cry. One little fellow I saw flit into a rocky cove at low tide, and drop down among the seaweed, where he was found and dispatched with a stick. When shot at on the water they dive at the flash and escape unless the gunner is within close range. JI remember wading out in the chilly December water on a gently sloping beach at Manchester, so as to get 86 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. close to the birds before firing. The flight of the Dovekie is swift and direct, generally close to the water and with the swaying motion of the other Adde. The small black wings, altogether out of proportion to the plump body, move with marvellous rapidity. I have noticed that they spread their little tails as they dive. The dead bodies of these birds, intact or partly devoured, were commonly found near the shore and even some distance inland during the invasion of 1877-78, and I have occasionally found them since. Some of the birds evidently died of starvation, others were killed by Hawks. The Dovekie is at once distinguished from all other waterfowl by its small size, short neck, and generally compact and plump form. It is indeed a charm- ing little bird to meet several miles from land on the wintry sea, and its confiding ways allow us to make its near acquaintance. (35] Megalestris skua (Briinn.). Sxkua; “Sea-HEen.” It is possible and probable that in storms the Skua approaches so near the coast that it should be included in the list of Essex County birds, but my records at present will not allow it without stretching the boundary of the County very much to seaward. I merely note here, however, from Capt. Collins :' “It is by no means abundant on any of the fishing-grounds, but is, nevertheless, to be met with occa- sionally all the way from George’s to the Grand Banks, at least.”” He notes also: “‘ Movember 27, 1878. Latitude 42° 49! N., longitude 62° 55’ W. Two skua gulls ....came near the vessel.” This must have been about 370 miles off the mouth of the Merrimac River. 11 [36] Stercorarius pomarinus (Temm.). POMARINE JAEGER, Not uncommon transient visitor ; spring; July 5 to September 28. A female of this species was taken on the Merrimac River? on July 5th, 1889. There are two in the Peabody Academy collection, one taken off East- ern Point on September 28th, 1864, the other at Swampscott. As this Jaeger differs from the Parasitic only in being slightly larger, the various phases of plumage being the same, it is difficult to distinguish them in life unless they are together. 1 J, W. Collins: U. S. Comm. of Fish and Fisheries, Report for 1882, pp. 311-331, 1884, 2 [F. B. Webster, ed.]: Ormnithologist and Oologist, vol. 14, p. 176, 1889. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 87 12 [37] Stercorarius parasiticus (Linn.). PARASITIC JAEGER; “ MARLING-SPIKE”; “SEA-HEN.” Common transient visitor; —to June 25 ; July 4 to October 14. My July 4th record is of a specimen shot by J. A. Jeffries at Swampscott, in 1873. This is the common Jaeger of the coast. They are often to be seen off Cape Ann and not uncommonly off Ipswich Beach, engaged in their occupation of chasing the Terns and Bonaparte’s Gulls. Their flight is rapid and graceful, and decidedly hawk-like. The victim twists and turns but all in vain, and at the last minute drops the fish, which is at once seized by the Jaeger. Terns not in- frequently chase the Jaegers in return, and the two twist about in a bewildering way, each trying to rise above the other, the Tern screaming incessantly. I once saw at Magnolia a Jaeger chase a Crow, frightening it half out of its wits. At another time at Ipswich some Terns were being chased by immature Jaegers who were in turn pursued by an adult Jaeger. Only once have I seen Jaegers alight on the beach, and this was in a severe northeaster, on June 17th, 1903, when I found ten on the beach at Ipswich. Six or seven of these appeared to be full adults. The Jaegers are easily recognized by their hunter-habits. The resemblance to a Hawk is increased if the bird be in the immature brown plumage. The adults in light plumage, with their dark backs, white breasts, a more or less com- plete ring about the throat, and long black central tail feathers, are objects of great beauty. 13 [38] Stercorarius longicaudus Vieill. LoNG-TAILED JAEGER. Rare transient visitor. I have an immature, brown plumaged bird in my collection, kindly given me in the flesh by Mr. H. A. Pitman, who shot it on August 24th, 1901, at Eagle Hill, Ipswich. The bird was flying over his decoys in the salt marsh. In this plumage the bird is difficult to distinguish from the immature Parasitic Jaeger, except by the color of the primaries. Mr. William Brewster kindly iden- tified my specimen. 88 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. [39] Pagophila alba (Gunn.). Ivory Gutu. Mr. George O. Welch tells me that he dis- tinctly remembers one of these Gulls shot by a fisherman off Swampscott fifty years ago or so, and brought to Jillson, who mounted it. What became of the specimen he does not know. 14 [40] Rissa tridactyla (Linn.). Kittiwake; “Pinny OwL”; “WINTER GULL.” Common winter visitor ; September 6 to March 1o. My earliest date is of a bird shot at Ipswich Beach by a gunner on Septem- ber 6th, 1903. They do not become common until the middle of October. The Kittiwake is an off-shore Gull, one that is to be found especially about fishing vessels in winter, gleaning the waves for the refuse which is always to be found in the neighborhood of these boats. In my notes of a trip to Nova Scotia from Boston, in December, 1883, I have entered that they were very abundant everywhere off the coast. Off Rockport in winter, Kittiwakes begin to be common two or three miles from land, and are generally abundant on the fishing grounds eight or ten miles out. They may, however, be frequently seen from the shore, especially if the day be stormy and the shore an open one. They often visit the little harbor of Rockport with its wealth of fish gurry. They also fly occasionally over the beaches and under these circumstances I have had no difficulty in shooting them for specimens, as, unlike the Herring Gull, they do not hesitate to fly within gunshot. I have never seen them in the tidal estuaries. The flight of the Kittiwake is swift and graceful, and is at times flickering and tern-like, especially when the bird is picking up food from the water. They are easily attracted about a boat by throwing out pieces of fish-livers, and then they can be observed at close range. The following interesting notes on the habits of the Kittiwake as observed in Essex County, were published by Mr. Brewster,! in 1882: “Some fishermen whom I lately employed to get a few Kittiwake Gulls on the winter fishing grounds off Swampscott, Massachusetts, gave me the following interesting account of the habits of this species, and the way in which my specimens were procured. ~ _A number of small schooners sail from Swampscott every winter morning and reach the fishing banks, which are some twelve miles off shore, about day- break. The men then take to their dories, and buckets of bait — generally cod- 1 Wm. Brewster: Bull. Nuttall Om. Club, vol. 7, p. 125, 1882. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 89 livers or other refuse —are thrown out to attract the fish to the spot. Of this custom the Kittiwakes — or ‘ Pinny Owls,’ as these men invariably call them — are well aware, and swarms of them quickly collect around the boats to pick up the morsels before they sink. They are very tame, and if one of the flock is shot the others hover over it as Terns will do on similar occasions. The usual way of taking them, however, is with hook and line, the bait being allowed to float off on the surface, when it is quickly seized by one of the greedy horde. In this manner great numbers are annually taken by the fishermen, who either skin and stew them or use the flesh for bait..... When the catch has been a large one, and the work of cleaning the fish is continued at the anchorage, they [the Kittiwakes] remain about the spot for hours picking up this offal directly under the sides of the vessels.” Although Kittiwakes are considerably smaller than Herring Gulls, it is easy to be deceived and mistake one for the other unless the two birds are near together. The Kittiwake is generally more graceful and active on the wing, a more rapid flyer, and when one has become accustomed to the two species they are easily distinguished. This I found to be the case when sailing off Rockport in winter, and the fishermen who have taken me out, rarely made a mistake in pointing out “ Winter Gulls,” as they called the Kittiwakes. A capital point which I have made out in adult Kittiwakes as they flew overhead is the fact that the bases of the black tips of the primaries are in straight line, instead of extending farther up the feathers in the larger primaries as is the case in Herring Gulls. In the immature Kittiwakes, however, this dis- tinction does not exist, as there is much black in all the large primaries. The differences between this Gull and Bonaparte’s Gull will be discussed under the latter bird. The rudimentary hind toe without a nail is not revealed, unfortu- nately, until the bird is in our hands. The bird referred to above, shot on Sep- tember 6th, 1903, had a much more noticeable hind toe with a minute nail, and suggested the western form, Rzssa tridactyla pollicaris. An examination of a series of skins of our eastern bird shows, however, a considerable variation in the size of this toe. 15 [42] Larus glaucus Briinn. Guiaucous GULL; BURGOMASTER. Very rare winter visitor. At the Peabody Academy, in Salem, there are two specimens of this Gull, one immature labeled Essex County, 1856, S. Jillson, the other taken at’ Lynn go MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. by N. Vickary, no date being given. In the collection of the Boston Society of Natural History is a male taken at Nahant, December 16th, 1882. In old age the bird is almost pure white, lacking the blue mantle, and the bird in this plumage was at one time considered a distinct species, Larus hutch- zmsit, or Hutchin’s Gull. R.L. Newcomb! under this title reports one shot at Lynn on November 30th, 1869. I have never seen the Burgomaster but have always been on the lookout for it, —a bird about the size of the Great Black-backed Gull with white wings. 16 [43] Larus leucopterus Faber. IcELAND GULL. Accidental winter visitor. The only record I have for this bird is a specimen in the Peabody Academy collection taken at Swampscott, by R. O. Wentworth. No date is given. 17 [47] Larus marinus Lion. Great BLACK—BACKED GULL; “ SADDLE-BACK.” Common winter visitor; (summer); July 17 to May 1 (June and July). A few birds occasionally pass the summer, there being, for example, two adults and two immature birds at Ipswich Beach during the summer of 1903. This magnificent fellow has very much the same habits and haunts as the Herring Gull. With his snowy white head and dark back he is very notice- able, and it is not entirely inappropriate to mistake him, as has been done, for a Bald Eagle. During the last of July, they begin to arrive from the north, and in September one may occasionally see as many as one hundred together on the beach. As early as July 17th, 1904, I found seven adults in a flock of Herring Gulls on Ipswich Beach. They associate freely with Herring Gulls, but are even more shy, never in my experience allowing any one to approach within gunshot, excepting in the protected harbors. Although they are sluggish flyers at times, yet when a gale is blowing they are as active and graceful as Swal- lows. They are apt to be tyrannical. I have seen one chase a Herring Gull, 1R. L. Newcomb: Forest and Stream, vol. 10, p. 155, 1878. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. gi twisting and turning like a Hawk, until finally the Herring Gull, hard pressed, dropped a clam, on which the big fellow at once pounced. Their cry is easily distinguished from that of the Herring Gull, being deeper and coarser. In winter, they are very fond of resting on the Salvages, rocky ledges off the coast of Cape Ann. I have noted their field marks and distinguishing points from the Herring Gull in the annotations on that bird. 18 [51] Larus argentatus Briinn. Herrinc Gutit; “Gray GULL.” Abundant resident ; does not breed. Especially along the northern sandy shores of Essex County, particularly at Ipswich and Coffin’s Beaches, the Herring Gull is to be found at all seasons of the year, —always abundant. Their numbers have noticeably increased dur- ing the last three or four years, owing to the efforts of the Audubon Society in protecting them on their breeding places on the coast of Maine. During the winter they are seen in great numbers in the harbors and in all protected bays. At this season they are more apt to visit the flats, creeks, and marshes, while in the summer they are chiefly to be found on and near the sand beaches and their outlying bars. During October and November, and again in the spring migra- tion, they often tarry for a while in the large ponds, and I have seen numbers standing on the ice of a pond in December, even when there was no open water near. They also frequent the rocky ledges off the end of Cape Ann. In June, July, and August they are often particularly abundant at the beaches. As their nearest breeding place is at No-Man’s-Land in Penobscot Bay, 111 miles to the northeast of Ipswich Light, and from there on eastward down the Maine coast, some explanation must be given for their presence here. The common explanation is that those that pass the summer are immature and bar- ren birds. This is certainly true, but is, I believe, only a partial explanation, because it hardly seems credible that so many adult birds as are found here in summer should be barren. J have made numerous counts and have sometimes found in June and July in some flocks as many as a quarter of the birds in the adult or nearly adult plumage. At other times during these months a flock will be seen where nearly all are in dark, very immature plumage, while near at hand may be a small flock of apparently full adults. Many of the large flocks contain from five to ten percent of adults. On the 21st of June, 1903, I saw at least 92 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 2000 Herring Gulls on the beach at Ipswich. On July 27th, 1903, between 2000 and 3000 of these birds were there. On the latter date, in a strong northwest wind, the birds alighted in a long line stretching from the edge of the sea, where the beach (see page 21) had extended out within a few years, back over the sand, through the small lagoon of water to the dunes. This was a meas- ured line of 320 yards. The birds varied from two or three up to twenty ina yard, the line of Gulls being extended in places to a breadth of several yards. Counting eight in a yard as a moderate average, this would make 2560 birds. Although the majority of the Gulls were in various stages of immature plumage from the dark gray to the mottled and to the nearly white, a considerable num- ber were in full adult plumage, with snowy breasts, pearl gray backs, and bright yellow bills. Another fact which is not easily explained on the barren-bird theory is the great variation in numbers of the Gulls. Although they are always abundant, yet at times, as when the beaches are covered with dead fish, the number of Gulls increases suddenly. In late May and early June, when nests are being built and eggs laid on the Maine coast, the adults have sometimes been seen copulating on Ipswich Beach. It seems to me reasonable to suppose that some, perhaps only a few, of these Gulls are daily excursionists from their breeding places to the beaches of Essex County for the food to be found there. At forty miles an hour, the hun- dred miles distance would be to them not more than a ten or twelve mile walk for us. Coasting along the shore of Maine, in June, one finds comparatively few Herring Gulls south of Penobscot Bay, except the little groups of half a dozen to thirty or forty in the harbors and coves along the shore. These birds are mostly adults, but immature in all stages are common. Farther out at sea the birds are usually flying southwest in the morning and northeast in the evening. In a yachting trip from Kittery to Northeast Harbor and back as far as Portland, from June 11th to June 23d, 1904, I took especial note of these points, and was convinced that the Herring Gull was in the habit of taking long excur- sions for food. Thus on June 13th, I saw a flock of fifty of these Gulls circling around some 300 or 400 yards up in the air off Cape Porpoise, near Portland, Maine, drifting slowly to the westward and frequently calling to each other. Suddenly, about half past eight in the morning, they ceased calling and all made off in a scattered flock towards the southwest, each bird flying rapidly and in a straight line. They were soon lost to sight. In the evenings towards sunset, scattered flocks of Herring Gulls were seen flying northeast along the shore. Dutcher and Baily! in their study of the Gulls at No-Man’s-Land and 1 Wm. Dutcher and W. L. Baily: Auk, vol. 20, pp. 417-431, 1903. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. g3 Great Duck Island, say: “At daylight large numbers of gulls leave the island and go to sea for food ; and the length of time they remain away is governed probably by the distance they have to go to find fish. Some days they return quite early and on others much later. The manner of flight when returning from one of these food trips is entirely different from that of the ordinary excur- sions made from the breeding grounds; it is made close to the surface of the water, very direct, one bird following another, and is quite rapid. Sometimes the birds show marked evidences of fatigue.” Herring Gulls are very social or gregarious, feeding, sleeping, and resting together in flocks; in fact it seems probable that all the Gulls of Ipswich Bay often gather together in one large flock. The nights, especially during stormy weather, are spent on the upper parts of the beaches beyond the reach of the tides. When they are disturbed from one part of the beach they go to another and it is probable that they often spend the night on the water. On July 23d, 1904, in a strong northeaster, I noticed the Herring Gulls pouring in from the sand bars where they had been feeding, drifting along side- wise as they flew, trying to keep their heads to the gale, and finally swinging around and dropping head to the wind on the broad plateaux of dry sand back of the beach at Ipswich. In the five minutes between 5.45 and 5.50 Pp. M., 108 birds came in to the flock that already numbered several hundred, and they con- tinued to fly in, generally at this rate, sometimes more, sometimes less, until 6.25 P. M., when they suddenly ceased to come. The densely packed flock on the sand must have then numbered two or three thousand birds and perhaps more. Disturbed, the multitudes rose, to settle again farther down the beach. On July 27th, a clear moonlight night, I again observed the Herring Gulls gather on Ipswich Beach, but, roused by my presence at 7.30 P. M., they flew towards Coffin’s Beach, where they apparently settled for the night. At least I did not hear or see them throughout the night, although I could distinguish Night Her- ons in the moonlight and could hear the call notes of various shore birds. It is true, however, that I found one Herring Gull on the beach that night, a wing- tipped bird that took to the water on my approach, and swam off. Even in this helpless condition the Gull appeared to prefer the beach to the sea at night. At 4.05 the next morning, the sun rising at 4.34, the Gulls began to appear out of the dim light from the direction of Coffin’s Beach, and I counted 448 going north along the beach before 4.15 a.m. At this time I could make out a great multitude of two thousand or more, circling about and alighting on the bars off Coffin’s Beach and near the mouth of the Essex River. Again, at 4.30 a. m., I counted a flock of 147 Gulls going by me, while the numbers at Coffin’s Beach appeared undiminished. In these huge flocks it is impossible to more than guess at the proportion of full adults, but I noted it at five percent. 94 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. The wet sand retains well the record of the Gull’s methods of locomotion on the ground. In alighting, both feet come down together or one a little in advance, with considerable force and thrust slightly forward, as is shown by the deep impression at the back of the track. In walking, they occasionally drag the middle toe. In rising from the beach, they rise against the wind, and even in windy weather they run a short way into the wind, but on calm days their launching into the air is labored. The Gull runs forward vigorously with wings spread and as it is gradually borne aloft, the feet still push at the sand until the tips only of the nails make imprints. The distance of the run is inversely pro- portionate to the velocity of the wind. On uneven ground, as in the sand dunes, the Gulls have merely to launch themselves into the air from a slight elevation, as is also the case when they fly from trees near the shore. While resting in large flocks on the beach, Herring Gulls are generally quiet, rarely appearing to quarrel. They often sleep squatting with breasts on the sand and bills thrust into the feathers of the back. Much time is devoted to preening themselves, and judging from the feathers remaining, their moulting is more or less continuous, but most marked in April and August. I once saw, on July 3d, 1904, two Gulls facing each other on Ipswich Beach, and bowing with wings extended, suggestive of the nuptial dance. Again, I have seen them chase each other, and run for considerable distances on the beach with wings widely spread. The flight of the Herring Gull varies greatly. Frequently, in going short distances from one feeding ground to another, they flap along slowly close to the water like Herons or Shags. I have seen individuals in a line of about a hun- dred turn up as if to avoid an obstacle, and then down again, each in succession flying up at the same point, and following exactly the one in front. Sometimes they advance in broad lines abreast, but as a rule they fly in loose flocks. When a gale is blowing, the Herring Gull is a different bird. It is then light and graceful in the extreme, now sailing before the wind, now rapidly beating up into it. Oliver Wendell Holmes, watching the Herring Gulls on the Charles River from his window, expressed very well these different moods in My Aviary. “Through my north window, in the wintry weather, — My airy oriel on the river shore, — I watch the sea-fow] as they flock together Where late the boatman flashed his dripping oar. The gull, high floating like a sloop unladen, Lets the loose water waft him as it will; BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 95 But when along the waves the shrill north-easter Shrieks through the laboring coaster’s shrouds ‘ Beware!’ The pale bird, kindling like a Christmas feaster, When some wild chorus shakes the vinous air, Flaps from the leaden wave in fierce rejoicing, Feels heaven’s dumb lightning thrill his torpid nerves, Now on the blast his whistling plumage poising, Now wheeling, whirling in fantastic curves.” One of the most beautiful sights is a flock of several hundred Herring Gulls wheeling in great circles together, or in numerous intersecting circles, whose courses it is impossible to follow, the sun and shadow alternately making the birds appear white and dark. These flocks circle higher and higher, rising from the beach or the ocean until they reach a considerable elevation. If a strong wind is blowing, they may set their wings and sail off into the teeth of it, occa- sionally flapping lazily and almost imperceptibly. At other times they all fly off vigorously in one direction. Again, they circle slowly down. In the autumn months it is common to seea flock of several hundred of these great white birds, covering perhaps an acre of brown salt marsh, suddenly rise up, go through these wonderful evolutions, all calling or talking together, and then settle back in the same place. At times they descend almost perpendicularly from a great height as when dropping down into a favorite feeding or resting place, by tipping, or rocking, turning first their backs and then their breasts to the observer. In alighting on the beach, they frequently fly up nearly vertically to wind- ward, and then drop gently down, landing squarely on both feet. At other times they sail along over the beach and gradually drop onto the sand, keeping their feet well apart. In flying a straight course, the tail is pointed like a cigar, but is spread in soaring, or dropping to pick up food. In quick turns, the feet are dropped pressed together and appear to act like a centerboard or rudder. Much of their food, especially in harbors, is refuse of all sorts floating on the surface. In picking this up from the water, they check their course, occasionally fly up almost backwards, and then gracefully swoop down with tail spread, pattering their feet on the water, curving down the tail, and seizing the desired tid-bit in the bill. This is often done without wetting a feather, save sometimes the tip of the tail only, but they frequently sit on the water for a minute while swallowing the morsel. When after small fish or objects below the surface, Herring Gulls throw themselves with some splashing and wings partly spread, head foremost into the water and on rare occasions with such force as to submerge themselves. In these plunges they shoot down obliquely with backs up. Nearly all their 96 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. plunges are, however, disappointing, ending in soaring and a gentle descent to the surface of the water. While sitting on the water, which they ride lightly and with elevated sterns like ancient Spanish caravals, they occasionally may be seen dipping like River Ducks for food. They occasionally devote themselves to bathing, shaking the water through their great wing feathers and splashing it about vigorously. I have seen them while riding the water on a rocky shore, occasionally fly up into the air a few feet to get an impetus, and then plunge into the water so that only the tips of ‘the wings and tail were visible, coming up with molluscs and rock- weed in their bills. One with a choice morsel is frequently chased and made to drop it, and the pursuer at once picks it up. Their cousins, the Great Black- backed Gulls, are also frequently the aggressors. On the sandflats and beaches they gather a large amount of food, molluscs of all sorts, crustaceans, echinoderms, and especially dead fish. They may often be seen flying nearly straight up or in circles, with a clam or a crab, which they drop from a height onto the hard sand, follow closely the descent, and alight to regale themselves on the exposed contents. If they fail to break the shell the first time, they try again. This habit, which is also a common one with Crows, explains the fact that molluscs’ shells, crabs, and sea urchins are scattered so universally along our coast, sometimes half a mile from the sea. I have found skates’ eggs still wet with salt water, dropped among the dunes many rods from the sea. In winter while sitting on ice cakes they pick up the flotsam, and occa- sionally a living fish from the surrounding water. When the harbors are frozen over, all the cracks in the ice are searched by the Gulls, who associate freely with the Crows in that pursuit. Another interesting association often to be seen at Ipswich is with a herd of harbor seals sunning themselves on the bar. Among these the Gulls walk peacefully. The Gulls eject the harder particles of their food, and balls of crabs’ claws and fish bones entirely cleaned of flesh are scattered about their resting places on the beach. These balls are sometimes two inches in diameter; they are loosely compacted and soon fall to pieces. They often contain bits of feathers or down which the birds must have plucked from their own breasts. Herring Gulls are at times very noisy, their wild cries going out over the waters. At other times they are silent. When resting, they appear to be scolding or talking together, for with a glass their bills are seen to open and shut in an animated way. I discovered at their breeding places in Maine, where the birds can be observed near at hand, that this opening and shutting of their bills meant a constant scolding or chattering. At times their cries resem- ble the rattling of heavy blocks ; at times they emit a hissing whistle. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 97 Although not as shy as the Great Black-backed Gull, the Herring Gull along our shore rarely forgets himself to the extent of approaching within gunshot, except in the populous harbors where he appears to know that he is safe from persecution. Mr. W. A. Jeffries tells me that at Swampscott Beach where the Gulls are not molested, he has walked within twenty-five feet of a flock of these birds. The varied plumage of the Herring Gull is always an interesting study, and it is superficially evident from the large number of dark and mottled birds at all seasons, that it takes several years to attain the beautiful adult plumage. What appears to be a dark tip to the tail, so prominent in young birds of a certain age, is often retained after increasing whiteness has set the stamp of years, but it is entirely absent in the snowy white tail of the fully matured bird. Birds with pure white tails with the exception of a slight central sprinkling of dusky brown and with a few faint gray streaks in the upper breast, are not uncommon. These, unless examined carefully with a glass, or in the hand, would easily pass for full adults. Astley,! who has kept Herring Gulls in captivity, says that although they attain a nearly complete adult plumage at the third autumnal moult, the bright yellow bill is not assumed until the fourth year. I have been puzzled by seeing birds with yellow bills whose plumage still showed considerable immaturity. Dwight? states that the bill becomes yellow when the second nuptial plumage is assumed. There must, it seems to me, be great variation in the rate at which the birds attain maturity. I was interested to note at Great Duck Island, off Mt. Desert, Maine, on June 17th, 1904, that while the great majority of the Herring Gulls that breed there were in full adult plumage, those with dark wings and black tips to the tails were not uncommon, while a few birds were to be seen with a considerable scat- tering of gray on the breast and upper belly; none darker than this were to be seen. These birds at a distance would appear white except for their dark tails and wings. The recognition of the Herring Gull in the field is not always simple. Most of our Gulls differ from each other chiefly in size, many, especially when in immature plumage, being otherwise told apart with difficulty. The Great Black-backed Gull in full adult plumage is easily recognized if seen from above, by his black back and wings, the latter with a narrow white border, but it must always be remembered that in certain lights Herring Gulls also look black above. Seen from below as the birds fly over, the differences are slight ; but a dark edge can often be seen on the wing of the Great Black-backed Gull. The 1H. D. Astley: My Birds in Freedom and Captivity, p. 160, 1gor. 2 Jno. Dwight, Jr.: Auk, vol. 18, pp. 49-63, 1901. 98 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. immature birds of the latter species although closely resembling in plumage immature Herring Gulls, are more streaked and buffy, less slaty gray. It is impossible to judge of size unless we have something for comparison. On land we are able to judge of the size of a bird by comparison with known objects, like leaves of trees, flowers, fence posts, etc., and the intervening objects make us good judges of distance. On the sea or on a sand beach, in the absence of these objects, distances are deceptive, and we can only judge of size by direct comparison with other birds. Side by side, Herring Gulls appear somewhat smaller than Great Black-backs, but with either alone it is unwise to judge of the size. By their habits on the wing they cannot be distinguished as both may be equally sluggish, or equally light and graceful. Next in size, smaller than a Herring Gull, is the Ring-billed Gull, which except by direct comparison, appears both in plumage and in flight very much like the Herring Gull. The young birds are, however, never quite as dark. When the birds are side by side the Herring Gull is seen to be considerably the larger of the two, but alone it is very easy to mistake one for the other. The fact that the Ring-billed Gull is generally less shy is a point that has often helped me and the ring-marking on the bill can sometimes be made out. Only slightly smaller than the latter bird is the Kittiwake, often confused with the Herring Gull, but generally more active and graceful, and with a slight difference in the wing-tip markings, while from the smallest of all our common Gulls, the Bonaparte’s Gull, there is generally no difficulty in the differentiation. It is to be remembered that the black band at the tip of the tail is common to all the Gulls in certain stages of immature plumage. In the Ring-billed, Kittiwake, and Bonaparte’s Gulls this is a true band on the long tail feathers, but the effect is the same in the Herring and the Great Black-backed Gulls, although when the birds are examined carefully with a glass or in the hand, it is seen in them to be due to the fact that the long upper and lower coverts, which are light in color, cover the dark bases of the large tail feathers. The band therefore is broader and less sharply defined. 19 [54] Larus delawarensis Ord. RING-BILLED GULL. Not uncommon transient visitor ; (winter ?) ; spring ; July 17 to October 30. I can give no spring dates but Mr. Outram Bangs writes meas follows: “I distinctly remember seeing Larus delawarensis several times in the spring; once in Gloucester Harbor I sawa lot of them. They were tame and I saw them BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 99 close to and positively identified them.’ On January rst, 1905, a small Gull in brownish gray immature plumage flew over my head at Rockport. It was probably of this species, and it is possible that a few may occur here in winter. The Ring-billed Gull is found alone or in small flocks. They often associ- ate with Herring Gulls and may be seen on the beaches with these large birds, which they resemble closely in habits. They also resemble them closely in the various stages of plumage as already noted under Herring Gull, and although much smaller, in the absence on the sea or beach of standards for comparison it is often difficult to distinguish them from the larger species. The fact that they may fly along the beach directly by or over an observer, without sheering off out of gunshot as do the Herring Gulls has always given me the hint as to the species, for they appear to have a very confiding nature. The young birds are never so slaty gray as the young Herring Gulls. With a glass, or at close range with the naked eye, the marking forming a ring on the bill of the adult can be made out. zo [58] Larus atricilla Linn. LauGHING GULL; BLACK-HEADED GULL. Rare transient visitor. Maynard! says: “I have seen the bird late in November at Ipswich.” There are two specimens in the Peabody Academy, labeled, respectively, Essex County, 1856, S. Jillson, young ; and Lynn, male, 1885, Vickary. The Laugh- ing Gull breeds to the south of Cape Cod, at Muskeget, and although it has been almost exterminated on the Maine coast, it is now, under the auspices of the Audubon Society, reéstablishing itself at Metinic Green Island. In Mr. Dutcher’s? Report of the Committee on Bird Protection for 1903, it is stated that “eight Laughing Gulls were counted at one time, and three nests were found containing eggs’’ at Metinic Green Island. It ought, therefore, to be seen occasionally on the shores of Essex County as a migrant. 1C, J. Maynard: The Naturalist’s Guide, p. 151, 1870. 2 Wm. Dutcher: Auk, vol. 21, p. 149, 1904. 100 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 21 [60] Larus philadelphia (Ord). BonaparTe’s GULL. Common transient visitor; (winter?); March 10 to June 3; July 27 to November 3. Like many sea birds, the Bonaparte’s Gull is much more common in the autumn than in the spring migrations. It is possible that a few may occasion- ally pass the winter here, as on January Ist, 1905, in Lynn Harbor, Mr. F. H. Allen saw among some Herring Gulls a small Gull probably of this species. In flight and action, the Bonaparte’s Gull resembles more closely the Terns than the Gulls, flitting about close to the edge of the waves and frequently drop- ping down to the water. It delights in feeding in the shallow water on the beaches inside of the surf line, sometimes walking, sometimes swimming, as the waves recede or advance. It is a tame bird and its confiding nature makes it very attractive. Occasionally it emits a harsh, rasping cry, but as a rule it is silent. The black-headed adults in nuptial plumage are rarely seen on the Essex County coast, for most of the birds in the late summer and autumn are either young or adults in winter plumage. This latter plumage appears to be assumed before the middle of August. The only black-headed birds I have seen in the autumn were two on July 27th, 1903. I have seen birds in the winter or imma- ture plumage as late as June 3d. The spot on the side of the head can be seen in the immature birds as well as their brownish gray lesser wing coverts and the broad dark tip to the tail. It is to be remembered, however, that the immature of all of our Gulls have this tip to the tail. The distinction between immature Kittiwakes and immature Bonaparte’s Gulls is perhaps the most difficult. Both have a dark spot on the sides of the head, but the markings on the wings when seen from above tell the story. In the Kittiwake there is a white posterior margin and black anterior margin, and this with the black line formed by the lesser coverts and part of the tertials makes a very striking pattern. In the immature Bonaparte’s Gull there is a black posterior as well as a black anterior margin to the wing. The small size of the Bonaparte’s Gull, the smallest of our Gulls, its tern- like flight as well as its confiding ways, generally serve to distinguish it. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. IOI 22 [63] Gelochelidon nilotica Hasselq. GULL-BILLED TERN; MarsH TERN. Accidental visitor from the south. There is only one record: a specimen taken by Maynard in September, 1871, at Ipswich, and now in Mr. William Brewster’s collection. This is also the only record for the State. 23 [64] Sterna caspia Pallas. CaspIAN TERN. Not uncommon transient visitor in the autumn; August 8 to September 15. This, the largest of the Terns on our coast, is probably not as rare as is generally supposed. Mr. Brewster,? writing in 1879, says he considers it “a regular visitor every season and one by no means uncommon..... I have ob- served them at various points from Ipswich to Nantucket.” He had seen at Ipswich on September 15th, 1871, a flock of six of these birds and secured one. On August 27th, 1901, at Ipswich Beach, my brother, Mr. W. S. Townsend, also secured one, a young female now in my collection, from a flock of six of these birds. On September 6th of the same year, a flock of five, possibly the same birds, was seen and one secured at the same place by Mr. B. C. Tower.? This also was a young female. On August 8th, 1902, my brother saw three flying near Ipswich Beach. On August 29th, 1903, as I was on the beach with Mr. Walter Deane, five of these large Terns flew over his head emitting a loud sgueek. Inthe autumn of 1904, I saw them several times near Ipswich Beach, as follows: August 21st, one; August 30th, three or four; September Ist, five. It is interesting to watch these great Terns fishing. Their long, pointed wings and the rapidity of their descent with a splash into the water is sugges- tive of the Gannet. I have heard them give a loud, coarse, rasping cry, some- thing like that of a barn-yard Goose. Their tern-build and manner of carrying the bill pointed downwards, together 1 Wm. Brewster: Amer. Nat., vol. 6, p. 306, 1872. 2 Wm. Brewster: Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club, vol. 4, p. 14, 1879. 3. R. H. Howe, Jr.: Auk, vol. 19, p. 91, 1902. 102 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. with their large size, more nearly that of the Herring Gull than of the Common Tern, serve to make their recognition easy. Since the capture of the Royal Tern at Ipswich Beach, this bird ought also to be considered. The two in life would appear very much alike, but the Royal Tern has a more deeply forked tail. 24 [65] Sterna maxima Bodd. RoyaL TERN. . Accidental from the south, Mr. C. Otto Zerrahn shot an adult male of this species at Ipswich Beach on July 17th, 1904. The bird was alone with a flock of Ring-billed Gulls. The specimen is in his collection, and he has kindly allowed me to publish the record here for the first time. In the Birds of Massachusetts by Howe and Allen (p. 27) there are only two records given for the State, one from Nan- tucket, the other from Chatham. 25 [69] Sterna forsteri Nutt. ForsTER’s TERN. Very rare transient visitor. There are but two records for the County and only a few others for the State. One was taken by Mr. C. J. Maynard at Ipswich in September, 1870.1 There is a specimen in the Peabody Academy collection taken at Nahant in August, 1887, by Mr. R. O. Wentworth. 26 [7o] Sterna hirundo Linn. Common TERN; WILson’s TERN; “MACKEREL GULL.” Abundant transient visitor, locally common summer resident; May 13 to October 30. Wm. Brewster: Amer. Nat., vol. 6, p. 306, 1872, BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 103 Eggs: June 14 to July 19. The average date of arrival of this bird for five years at Milk Island, off the end of Cape Ann, is May 18th. It is rarely seen after the end of September. As a rule, only single birds appear in October, yet on October 16th, 1904, I counted 89 in a flock on Ipswich Beach. A week later, on the 23d, I was again at the beach and saw 30 or 40 of these birds, and again, on October 30th, there were about a dozen. These are in my experience unusually late dates to see so many of these Terns. The weather had been unusually mild. The Common Tern once bred on all the rocky islands and back of all the sandy beaches on the Essex County coast. The latter breeding places have long since been abandoned. Mr. C. J. Maynard found from fifty to a hundred breeding in the Ipswich dunes between 1868 and 1872, after which latter date it is doubtful if they continued there. The rocky islands were less subject to the invasion of man, and the birds have continued longer to breed there. Nuttall,! in 1834, speaks of thirty or forty pairs breeding annually at Egg Rock, off Nahant. .They formerly bred on Great Egg Rock, off the Manchester shore. This island is a mass of rock rising in places twenty or thirty feet above the water, and is of about an acre in extent. Here and there are a few patches of pebbles or of coarse grass, but it is for the most part bare rock. On July roth, 1876, I found a hundred or more Common, with perhaps some Arctic Terns breeding here. The eggs were laid in slight indentations in the rock or in slight hollows among the pebbles, with usually a few straws for form’s sake beneath the eggs. In one case the nest was more elaborate, being made of small pieces of driftwood and straws and placed in a hollow among the pebbles. Eggs even at this late July date were abundant, either two or three in about equal proportions, one in one case, four in another. Two years later, on again visiting the rock, only two or three pairs were found and they have since aban- doned the place. Up to 1889, Mr. C. E. Brown found them breeding at Cherry Island. The Common Tern still breeds at Milk Island, off the end of Cape Ann, to the number of about fifty pairs of late years. Milk Island is an irregular triangle of eight or ten acres in extent, flanked by ledges and a sea-wall of pebbles, boulders, and broken rocks thrown up by the storms. This encloses a marshy area in which grow bulrushes, elder, and bayberry bushes. At the southern angle there is a broad surface of broken rock and boulders above the reach of ordinary tides, and here it is that the Terns breed. Notwithstanding the close proximity of their breeding station, Common 1Thomas Nuttall: A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada, vol. 2, P. 273, 1834. 104 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. Terns very rarely visit Ipswich Beach before the first of August, and they are rare in the spring. The first autumn arrivals in 1903 appeared on August 4th, and in 1904 on August 6th. On August roth, immature birds were also found. These are all probably migrants from the north. By the middle of the month they are common and flocks of young and old to the number of two or three hundred disport themselves about the beach, or fly screaming over the marshes. Their rattling scream is loud and insistent, and once heard is not easily forgot- ten, especially by one who has visited their breeding places. “On the beach itself, their white breasts suggest at a distance a flock of shore birds, but their short legs and long wings make them awkward walkers. Unlike Sandpipers, therefore, they generally stand still or walk but afew inches. They often bathe in the shallow water, or, standing still, snatch a few moments of sleep, with their heads sunk down between the shoulders, or the bill buried in the feathers of the back. As they rise, their rattling ¢e-avr and loud £2 £2’ £2' ring out, and they scatter to hover and plunge into the water, often immersing themselves entirely in their pursuit of small fish. Not infrequently they may be seen flying with a fish hanging from the bill. They often dart down screaming at gunners’ decoys, and when one of their number is shot they circle about and dart down screaming at the hapless one, whether to help or destroy, I know not. They suffer greatly from the annoyance of the Jaegers, who pursue them unmercifully and force them to drop their prey. But they frequently chase the Jaegers in return, screaming continuously. Once in mid-August on the Maine coast I found a Common Tern chasing a male Sharp-shinned Hawk. The latter twisted and turned but was unable to escape his adversary until he took refuge in an alder thicket, around which the Tern flew screaming in anger. The cause of this anger I could not discover, because the Hawk’s stomach contained only a Sparrow and a Warbler, birds in which the Tern presumably took no interest. It is certainly a great satisfaction to bird-lovers to note a decided increase in the number of Terns of late years, owing to the splendid efforts for their protection. The Common Tern is easily identified by his swallow-like flight, his bill pointing downwards as he flies, by his hovering and plunging after fish and his loud ze-arrs. The points of difference between the Common and the Arctic Tern are given under the latter bird. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 105 27 [71] Sterna paradisza Brinn. Arctic TERN. Uncommon transient visitor, formerly summer resident; spring; August 10 to September. Mr C. J. Maynard tells me that he found this bird between 1868 and 1872 breeding in the dunes at Ipswich, back of the beach. In his Naturalist’s Guide (p. 145) he gives measurements of five adults, two young of the year, and one fledgling shot at Ipswich in July, 1868 and 1869. He with Allen + found the young at Ipswich just able to leave the nest. Arctic Terns were found breeding on the islands in Beverly Harbor in 1846.2 It is probable that in the Common Tern colony on Egg Rock off Manchester, previously described, there were a few Arctic Terns, for the two species frequently breed together to-day on the Maine coast. The habits of the Arctic Tern are similar to those of the Common Tern. When the two species are calling together it is difficult to distinguish the charac- teristic cries of the Arctic Tern. On favorable occasions, however, one may hear its jerky, squealing call. The call ends with a ¢e-avr similar to that of the Common Tern. Adult Arctic Terns can be distinguished from Common Terns by the fact that their bills are of a uniform deep red, devoid of the black tips possessed by the Common Terns. The tail is slightly longer and the under parts grayer. These differences can be made out only at close range or within fifty to a hun- dred yards. I have, however, distinguished the two species with a telescope in a good light at the distance of several hundred yards. 28 [72] Sterna dougalli Montag. RosEaTE TERN. Rare transient visitor; formerly summer resident. Samuel Cabot * reported the Roseate Tern as breeding on the islands in 1J. A. Allen: Amer. Nat., vol. 3, p. 643, 1870. 2 Samuel Cabot: Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 2, p. 179, 1846. 3 Samuel Cabot: Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. z, p. 179, 1846. 106 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. Beverly Harbor, in 1846. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway! reported it breeding at Egg Rock, Nahant, in 1840. Mr. Maynard tells me he never found it breed- ing but he states in his Naturalist’s Guide (p. 157) that it is “common at Ipswich in autumn.” I have never seen it. 29 [74] Sterna antillarum (Less.). Least TERN. Accidental] visitor ; formerly summer resident. The only certain record I have for the Least Tern is Maynard’s statement in the Naturalist’s Guide (p. 157) that he “found a few breeding at Ipswich.” This was in the late sixties. I once saw at Ipswich Beach, in the autumn, a small flock of Terns which I believed to be of this species. As the bird does not now breed regularly north of Cape Cod, its occurrence on the Essex County coast must be purely accidental. 30 [75] Sterna fuliginosa Gmel. Sooty TERN. Accidental visitor from the south. An adult male was taken on the Merrimac River, near Lawrence, on October 29th, 1876,” and five or six other specimens were taken in New Eng- land that same year. Allen® calls this “a remarkable invasion of these birds into New England in the fall” of 1876. 31 [77] Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis (Gmel.). BLack TERN. Not uncommon transient visitor; June 7; August 10 to September 6. This little Tern is a regular and not uncommon visitor, especially during 1S. F. Baird, T, M. Brewer, and R. Ridgway : Water Birds, vol. 2, p. 305, 1884. 2 Ruthven Deane: Bull. Nuttall Orn, Club, vol. 2, p. 27, 1877. 3J. A. Allen: Bull. Amer Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 1, p. 228, 1886, BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 107 the last week of August. The only spring record I have is that of a pair of full adults in black plumage in the collection of the Peabody Academy, taken at Nahant, on June 7th, 1883. The habits of the Black Terns are very similar to those of the Common Tern, but from their smaller size they appear more active. They are found singly or in flocks of five or six, and at times they associate with the Common Tern. I have never heard them utter a sound, In the autumn all the birds appear to be in winter or immature plumage, with white breasts and bellies and dark backs. They have a dark partial ring on the upper breast and a black patch around and behind the eye and on the crown. Their small size makes their recognition easy, and their tameness often permits close scrutiny. [86] Fulmarus glacialis (Linn.). Furmar; “Noppy”; “MAaARBLEHEADER”; “OIL-BIRD.” It is possible that the Fulmar may in storms be driven within sight of the Essex County coast, but I have no records for this region. It is strictly pelagic in its habits. Capt. Collins! says that the Fulmar “is fairly plentiful in winter from George’s to the Grand Bank,”’—a region several hundred miles to the east of Essex County. 32 [89] Puffinus gravis (O’Reilly). GREATER SHEARWATER; “Hacpon”; “Hacier”; “Hac”; “Gray Hac.” Common summer visitor off the coast; May to October 12. Our Shearwaters breed in the southern hemisphere and spend the non- breeding season, their winter, in our summer. They are birds of the ocean in the strictest sense, rarely, while with us, coming near land, although in stormy weather this occasionally happens. Mr. Charles Larkum, of Beverly, tells me that during a northeast storm in October he saw a number of these birds about half a mile off the mouth of the Essex River. I have sailed a good deal along the coast in small boats, generally within three or four miles of shore, always on the watch for interesting birds, but never until I made a special trip for them, did I find the Shearwaters. As Cape Ann projects out so far, it is evident that we can gain something on Old Ocean by starting from there, and I had been told by a fisherman, who knew the “ Hags” well from old experience on the “ Banks,” that I could see them there some ten or a dozen miles off Rockport. On the day in question, there had been a heavy 1J. W. Collins: Auk, vol. 1, p. 238, 1884. 108 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. southerly blow with rain, and the birds were found nearer shore than usual, about four miles out. While the Wilson’s Petrels, attracted by the cod livers we were throwing out to them, surrounded our boat in numbers, suddenly there appeared a Greater Shearwater, immediately recognized and distinguished from the Gulls by its characteristic appearance and flight. In all, we saw six or eight Greater Shearwaters and two or three Sooty Shearwaters. The Shearwaters have a very characteristic manner of gliding or scaling swiftly near the water with their long pointed wings slightly decurved. As they fly and scale about the boat, all their motions are graceful in the extreme. Now they glide straight away, close to the surface of the waves, appearing and disappearing, as the great surges rise and fall; again, they swing in graceful circles around the fishing boat, all alert for the food to be found in that vicinity. Alighting on the water, they rush forward eagerly to seize the bits of cod livers, holding their head and breast well up, the wings partly-spread. This position in the Greater Shearwater, displays the dark bars and markings on the inner sides of the wings and on the flanks. In seizing the food, their heads and necks are eagerly stretched out along the water. Besides cod livers, they are evidently very fond of squids, for one that I shot contained in its stomach the horny beaks of twenty-four squids. Mr. George Dobson, of Rockport, with whom I have sailed several times to find water birds, had thirty-five years ago caught many of the “Hags” on the Grand Banks for bait. He told me that each dory was required to catch two hundred with hook and line each morning. This was done very quickly as the boats were surrounded by the birds eager for the cod livers. The “ Hags” were then skinned, pounded with a mallet to break the bones, and cut up with a sharp knife into small pieces to bait the trawls. In this account he agreed with the description given by Capt. J. W. Collins Since that time Mr. Dobson said that the practice of using “ Hags”’ has been given up in favor of “fresh bait,’’— herring, capelin, and squid kept on ice. The “Hags” when skinned and freed from fat, he said, were much appreciated as food by the fishermen, and I can attest that when treated in this way and properly cooked they are tender and to one who is used to sea fowl, really very good eating. The manner of flight already described distinguishes Shearwaters from Gulls. The dark back and top of the head contrasting with the white breast and throat is noticeable in the Greater Shearwater ; the wings also are dark, the lower surface, however, being silvery gray. [90] Puffinus puffinus (Briinn.). Manx SHeaRwaTER. “A North Atlantic species, chiefly 1J. W. Collins: U.S. Comm. Fish and Fisheries, Report for 1882, pp. 311-338, 1884. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 10g on the eastern side; accidental in Greenland, and rare or casual off the North American coast (?).”1 Included by Putnam,? in 1856, from a skull in the Essex Institute collection taken from a bird said to have been killed in Salem Harbor, August 13th, 1855. “As Prof. Putnam cannot at this time remember anything in regard to the record, and as the skull is not to be found, the species is not here enumerated.’”? 33 [94] Puffinus fuliginosus Strick. Sooty SHEARWATER; “Brack Hac” or “ Hacpon.” Not uncommon summer visitor ; March to October. There is a specimen in the collection of the Boston Society of Natural History, labeled Egg Rock, off Nahant, March, 1879. The Sooty is much less abundant than the Greater Shearwater. The habits and methods of flying appear to be the same in these two Shearwaters. A specimen I shot off Rockport, in August, contained in its stomach the beaks of several squids. The dark color at once distinguishes the Sooty Shearwater. It appears almost as black as a Crow as it scales along with its narrow, pointed wings and its short, rounded tail. [97] Priofinus cinereus (Gmel.). BLAack-TAILED SHEARWATER. Recorded by Putnam 4 as ‘Winter. Common.” The bird is a Pacific Coast species and is not known to occur here. 34 [106] Oceanodroma leucorhoa (Vieill.). LeEacnH’s PETREL. Uncommon transient visitor; June 21; October 12 to November. Although Leach’s Petrels breed in large numbers along the coast of Maine as far south as No-Man’s-Land in Penobscot Bay, 111 miles northeast of Ipswich Light, they very rarely stray during the breeding season to the Essex County coast, and are only occasionally seen during the migrations. Yet it is evident that many thousands must pass our shores. The birds that are seen 1 Amer. Ornith. Union Check-List, p. 32, 1895. 2F, W. Putnam: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 1, p. 225, 1856. 3R. H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen: The Birds of Massachusetts, p. 22, 1901. 4, W. Putnam: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 1, p. 222, 1856. IIo MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. are generally those that have been driven by storms or have wandered inland. Mr. C. H. Houghton, of Rowley, has a specimen that was caught in the creek near the railroad station at Rowley, in the autumn. Mr. Ralph Hoffmann gave me a dead bird of this species that he found at Nahant on November 5th, 1903. Dr. John C. Phillips shot one at Wenham Lake on October 15th, 1904, and Mr. C. E. Brown obtained one there on the same date. He also took one at Ipswich Beach on October 12th, 1904. These last two are now in the collec- tion of the Boston Society of Natural History. The only record I have of Leach’s Petrel during the summer is an inter- esting one. On June 2ist, 1903, during a prolonged northeast storm, I was watching a flock of from forty to fifty Wilson’s Petrels near Ipswich Beach, when my attention was attracted by five birds which belonged to the species under discussion. These Leach’s Petrels were distinctly larger and browner, — a shabby brown,— while the Wilson’s appeared nearly black. On close scrutiny the diagnostic difference in the tail which was slightly forked in the Leach’s Petrel, was noticeable, but the larger size and browner color first struck my eye. In both, the white rumps contrasting with the dark bodies are conspicuous At this season and a little earlier, I have found the males sitting on the single eggs in their burrows at Great Duck Island, off Mount Desert, Maine. I regret that I did not have my gun at the beach on this occasion, for it would have been interesting to find out whether these were the day-wandering females. 35 [109] Oceanites oceanicus (Kuhl). Witson’s PetreL; “MoTHER Cary’s CHICKEN”; “SToRMY PETREL.” Abundant summer visitor off the coast; June 21 to September 23. This bird is a summer visitor, not a summer resident, for it makes its resi- dence and lays its egg in February on the islands of the South Atlantic in its summer, coming north across the equator in our summer. Its life is therefore one perpetual summer although spent on the stormy ocean. On July 8th, 1891, a Petrel, probably of this species was killed by striking one of Thatcher's Island Lights. I have never known them, like the Leach’s Petrel, to be found in inland ponds and rivers. The Wilson’s Petrel is in my experience the only Petrel that is seen here throughout the summer. It almost never comes close to the shore except in stormy or foggy weather. Fishing for cod a few miles off the shore, one is almost certain to have these birds come about the boat for the bait and BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. III “gurry” that are inseparable from this pursuit. They are very tame, pattering over the waves and picking up morsels of food close to the boat. They are ‘ sometimes caught with hook and line and I have a bird in my collection that may have been caught in this way. It was picked up dead on Ipswich Beach, was well nourished but had a slit at one corner of the mouth as if a hook had been cut out. Another in my collection was found floating at Magnolia near the shore with no signs of violence. When winged and caught, they vomit quantities of ill-smelling fish oil, and their stomachs, —large flabby pouches, — always contain it. Besides the oil I have found a few small stones and bits of charcoal. The odor of the Petrel, even of old specimens in collections, is distinctive. It is rare that one finds them so close to the land as actually to fly over it, but this happened in my observation once during a severe easterly rain-storm at Ipswich, on June 21st, 1903. The surf was breaking on the shallow beach as far out as one could see through the blinding rain and spray, but these birds with wings set, would glide into the teeth of the wind and bound from wave to wave as if on springs, seeming every now and then to be overwhelmed in the surf, but appearing beyond the wall of foam steadily gliding and bounding to windward. A slight movement only of their wings was at times to be noticed, and an occasional pattering of their feet on the waves. Ever and anon they would wheel about like large swallows, flying to leeward, to turn again and glide and bound into the wind. Once or twice they flew for a moment over the beach itself, actually drifting past me on the shore side, as I stood in the water at the edge of the surf. In calm weather they occasionally settle down on the water the better to pick up food. As they surround a fishing boat, especially if bits of fish-liver are thrown out to them, they can be observed closely. They hop at times on the water with the use of the wings, keeping the feet together and pattering lightly on the surface. At other times they appear to run along on the waves, using the feet alternately, but supporting themselves by their wings. When the Petrels are feeding excitedly on the bits of liver they emit a gentle peeping note. I have seen them startled from the water at night, wheel around the vessel wildly, high up, and disappear in the darkness astern. In flight, the feet can be seen to project deyond the tail, and this is a capital diagnostic point, for the feet of the Leach’s Petrel do not reach to the end of the tail, or even to the apex of the fork. After noticing this in the living bird I found it was a marked distinction in the skins. The average length of the tarsi of two Leach’s Petrels in my collection is 0.84 of an inch, of the tibiz 0.95, a total length of 1.79 inches. The average length of the tarsi of four specimens of Wilson’s Petrels is 1.28, and of the tibize 1.44 inches, a total II2 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. average length of 2.72 inches. This makes a difference of nearly an inch in the length of the whole leg. The white rump is of course noticeable and the light gray of the secondary wing coverts, contrasting with the sooty black of the rest of the wings, is also apparent. [115] Sula sula (Linn.). Boosy. A tropical and subtropical bird, recorded by Putnam? for Essex County as “rare.”’? This record has been “expunged.” 2 36 [117] Sula bassana (Linn.). GANNET. Common transient visitor; March 26 to June 7; August 28 to Decem- ber 21. At times the Gannet is a common bird off the shore, especially in the fall migration, and is seen singly and in small or large flocks. Its stay with us in the autumn is coincident with that of the herring, which at this season swarm in the waters of Ipswich Bay. I have seen a hundred and on one occasion at least two hundred Gannets about a mile off the beach at Ipswich, and most interesting itis to watch them fishing. This, in their case, is far from being a quiet pur- suit or a contemplative man’s recreation; much more does it suggest a naval battle, for the birds hurl themselves at the water like bombs, sending the spray up to a great height. In fact, the comparison might also be made with a school of whales, as the spurts of spray resemble the spouting of these animals. The Gannets follow the schools of herring and actually bombard the water in rapid succession, or even several at the same time. The process in detail is as follows: the Gannet flies rapidly over the water and begins to soar at a height of from 30 to 100 feet, often rising just before the plunge. At the plunge the head is pointed down, the tail up; the wings are partly spread so that the bird appears like a great winged arrow. The speed of the descent is great, and the wings are closed just before reaching the water, which spurts up to a height of from five to fifteen feet. After the waters have subsided following the splash, and all is still, the bird suddenly and buoyantly comes to the surface, the head and neck stretched out first. It then sits quietly on the water for a half minute or so to finish swallowing the prey and to rest, and then slowly and laboriously rises to windward, with its long neck and tail stretched to their full extent. 1¥F. W. Putnam: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. 1, p. 221, 1856. 2R. H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen: The Birds of Massachusetts, p. 59, 1901. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 113 Gaining a height of thirty or more feet, it swings around to leeward, and is soon soaring and plunging again. : Of eight observations made with a stop-watch on the length of time that this bird remained under water after the plunge, the limits were 4 and 7 seconds, the average being 6} seconds. I also timed them in three descents from a height of perhaps sixty feet and found it to be 14, 13, and 1 second, respectively, from the beginning of the descent to the time when they struck the water. This would indicate that the bird actually throws itself downward, and not merely drops by gravitation as the distance traveled is too great for such a quick descent by gravity alone. This is apparent without actual measurement, and is also shown by the fact that the birds sometimes descend quickly at an angle, two often aiming at the same spot. How they avoid annihilating each other seems marvellous. The height of the descent is of course very difficult to judge, but my estimates are based on comparisons with the masts of schooners equally distant. The height of the splash was compared with that of spar buoys near the fishing grounds. As with all other sea birds at a distance, observations were made with a telescope. I once had an opportunity to watch this bird on the beach, a single bird near a flock of Herring Gulls. It was evidently taking its ease, lying out on the sand, with one outstretched wing. Later it walked about. When first seen with neck outstretched I mistook it for a Goose, but soon saw it was a Solan Goose or Gannet. It is interesting, as Newton shows in his Dictionary of Birds, that Solan has the same derivation as Sz/a, and Gannet comes from Gans —a Goose. The extension and retraction of the neck of the Gannet is seen when it is flying as well as when on the ground. There is a mounted adult Gannet in the rooms of the Union Boat Club, at Boston, that was caught at Marblehead in the “early summer” about twenty years ago by Mr. Wm. S. Eaton. The bird was sailed up to on the water, struck on the head with a boat hook, and easily captured. The Gannet somewhat resembles a large Gull. It is, however, considerably larger than a Herring Gull while its wing feathers, black as if dipped in ink, and its long pointed tail and bill easily distinguish it. Its back is snowy white, instead of blue-gray as in the Gull. The bare yellow skin extending from the base of the bill towards the eye can sometimes be made out witha glass. In the autumn, some of the birds are in gray and brown immature plumage, yet their general shape distinguishes them. The most characteristic thing about Gannets, however, is their manner of fishing. I14 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 37 [119] Phalacrocorax carbo (Linn.). CorMORANT; ComMON CORMORANT. Uncommon transient and winter visitor ; November 13 to January (and to April). There are two specimens in the Peabody Academy at Salem labeled respectively, January, 1867, Gloucester, and December, 1888, Lynn. I saw two immature birds of this species on the tripod of the Great Salvages off Rock- port, on January Ist, 1905, and one there on November 13th, 1904. Their flight and habits are similar to those of the Double-crested Cormor- ant, soon to be described. One of the birds I saw on January rst, sat for a short while on the rock in the spread-eagle posture. It wasa mild day for winter, but the posture must have been a chilling one. As Cormorants are rarely seen near at hand, being shy birds, it is difficult to distinguish this species from the Double-crested Cormorant. Mr. Brewster says: “In flight and general appearance this Cormorant resembles [dz/lophus], but it looks much larger, and its white throat is usually a conspicuous feature.” 1 This marking, however, is seen in the adult only. The difference in size is striking both when the birds are on the wing and when perched. I have been able to note this when, in company with Mr. Hoffmann, I was so fortunate as to observe an immature bird of each species sitting side by side on the beacon on the Great Salvages off Rockport, November 13th, 1904. They flew off together as we sailed by, but returned to their perch so that a second look was possible, this time within a hundred yards. Another noticeable difference, besides the larger size of caro, is that the belly of this species in the immature is nearly white, while that of dz/ophus in the immature is grayish or brownish white on the upper breast and shades down to black on the lower belly. The bare skin of the throat, the gular sac, in carvdo, at least in the immature, is more of a brownish yellow, that of dz/ophus, even in the immature, an orange yellow. Seen from the side, the extent of this bare skin appears the same in both species, but from below, the feathers are found to go up in a point nearly to the bill in carbo, while in dzlophus, the posterior border of the bare skin is straight across without any projecting angle of feathers. This difference enables one to distinguish the two species in the hand with great ease, and I was able to make out the colors in life. Another distinction, to be made out with the bird 1 Wm. Brewster: Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 22, p. 394, 1884. BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 115 in the hand only, is the fact that cavdo has fourteen tail feathers and dlophus twelve. The tail is generally well worn by abrasion on the rocks. In the hand, one is also impressed by the uncanny shape of the jet black feet sug- gestive of a bat’s wing, and the fur-like feathers of the neck. The birds seen in January, 1905, were first noticed from the shore a mile and three quarters distant. Even at this distance I was able with a telescope to make out the white belly and thus distinguish the species. Later, we sailed within a hundred and fifty yards of them and could observe them closely. 38 [120] Phalacrocorax dilophus (Swains.). DovuBLE-CRESTED CormMoRANT; “SuHac.” Common transient visitor; April 4 to June 18, (to July 7); August 22 to November 24. Like many sea birds, this species is more commonly seen in the autumn flight, when it occurs all along the coast, but particularly off rocky shores. Mr. R. S. Eustis tells me that he observed two Cormorants from June 20th to July 7th, 1904, off Marblehead. They were not seen after the latter date. Dr. J. C. Phillips reports that they are not infrequently seen flying high over Wenham Lake, especially in easterly storms in October, and on one occa- sion, in 1900, a single bird alighted in the lake. The Corvus marinus, or Cormorant, is, as its name implies, a great black bird, which when once known is easily recognized. Singly and in flocks of from five to thirty or more it is to be found flying along the coast most abun- dantly in October. It alights on the water and on rocks and rocky islands, and is particularly fond of spar buoys. The huge tripod on the Great Salvages off Rockport is one of their favorite perching places. Its attitude ona perch is most characteristic. The bird sits upright resting on its tail, with an S-curve in its neck. It often sits in spread-eagle style with wings stretched, the head sometimes turned to one side and upwards, looking like the typical Eagle on the old-fashioned mirrors. I have seen them keep this position for ten minutes by the watch. I once saw three Shags on the beach at Ipswich. Only occasionally did they rest their tails on the sand, generally keeping them raised an inch or two. They frequently stood on one leg, and they walked with an exaggerated waddle. I was interested to examine their footprints on their departure. The three front-toe marks with nails were plainly shown, and a deep depression marked the 116 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. base of the foot. The fourth toenail had also deeply cut into the sand, at right angles with the long axis of the foot, and there was in some of the marks an indication of the web connecting all the toes. The scratches of the tail feathers appeared in places. In rising, the birds took five Aops for a distance of four yards before they could clear the sand. By ops I mean that their feet were placed close together, as shown by the six deep scratches of the nails. Gulls and Ducks use the feet alternately, run, in other words, when they are launching themselves into the air, but in the case of the Shags the footprints were side by side and as close together as possible. On the water, Shags look very much like Loons, except for their black necks and breasts. They dive with great facility, throwing themselves forward with their powerful legs. They rise from the water with considerable difficulty, unless a strong breeze is blowing. In flight, they are totally unlike a Loon for their large rounded wings are slowly flapped like a Heron’s, and at times they glide on outstretched pinions. The neck is stretched out in front, generally with a slight curve near the head, and the tail appears short in comparison with the long neck. It is in reality quite long, and is fan-shaped when spread. The short legs do not stretch out beyond the tail in flight as they do in case of the Loons, but are concealed by the tail. They fly in single file, in a perfect V, or in an irregular bunch. When flying from one feeding or resting ground to another, they flap along close to the water, but in migrating they generally fly high.