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 e.xcept 

 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 Pufiin, 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 



