BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 21 



clam {Spisjila solidissima) 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 Litiiico/ce 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 



