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, e.xcept 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 cluck 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- 



