SUPPLEMENT TO BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY 



29 



A note to a paper by Professor James Orton on the Great Auk,i signed " F. W. P." 

 [F. W. Putnam], reads: 



" That the Great Auk was once very abundant on our New England shores, is proved 

 beyond a doubt by the large nuber of its bones that have been found in the ancient ' Shell- 

 heaps ' scattered along the coast from British America to Massachusetts. The ' old hunter ' 

 who told Audubon of its having been found at Nahant, was undoubtedly correct in his state- 

 ment, as we have bones of the species taken from the Shell-heaps of Marblehead, Eagle Hill 

 in Ipswich, and Plumb Island, and Mr. Elliot Cabot' has informed me that an old fisherman 

 living in Ipswich described a bird to him, that was captured by his father in Ipswich many 

 years ago, which, from the description, Mr. Cabot was convinced was a specimen of the 

 Great Auk." 



10 [34] Alle alle (Linn.). 



Dovekie; Little Auk; "Pine Knot"; "Knotty"; "Ice-bird." 



Winter visitor, varying irregularly from uncommon to abundant. November 

 4 to April 30 (June i). 



The exceptionally late date of June i, records a single bird seen by Mr. Charles 

 R. Lamb off Rockport, in 1914. On March 17, 1912, in a trip in a fishing-steamer 

 to about eight miles off Cape Ann I saw great numbers of this interesting bird, 

 singly and in small and large flocks. Many were flying north close to the water. 

 They dotted the calm surface for miles from the shore and even ainong the 

 wharves at Gloucester to a distance of ten miles at sea. In all, several thousand 

 must have been seen. They were so tame that they were constantly in danger 

 of being run down by the steamer, but managed to get out of the way by flopping 

 over the surface, or diving and flying vigorously under water. Their voices were 

 frequently heard, in the form of a " whistling grunt " or " nasal whistle " as I 

 have jotted it down in my notes. On another occasion when I was watching a 

 single bird swimming at its ease within six feet of me at Rockport with its tail 

 cocked up between its wings, I heard a low, rather soft squeak uttered from time 

 to time. The bird dabbled at the water from time to time and shook its head. 

 Six days after my observation of the large number of Dovekies off Gloucester 

 Mr. H. W. Wright counted seventy-five from the shore at Nahant. 



On January 7, 1905, a Dovekie was picked up by Mr. R. Larcom in the streets 

 of Beverly, and in the spring of that same year I found the remains of one not 

 far from my house at Ipswich. 



[35] Megalestris skua (Briinn.). Skua; "Sea-hen." — I have no nearer record for 

 the County than the one previously noted by Captain Collins some 370 miles off the mouth 

 of the Merrimac River. 



1 Amer. Naturalist, vol. 3, p. 540, 1869. 



