38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



As we returned homeward we raised a pair of Black Ducks 

 close in-shore, as we followed the channel by an island. These 

 birds must nest commonly throughout the State, both on the 

 salt and fresh marshes, as I have seen them frequently in pairs 

 or singly in May and June from Rehoboth to Odessa. A single 

 Night Hawk was hunting his supper overhead as we tied up to 

 the dock at seven o'clock. We heard no Whip-poor-wills on 

 this trip, but they are reported as abundant, and as stated I 

 have heard them on the north shore of the bay back of Rehoboth. 



After supper we chatted with our two boatmen, who were 

 both ardent gunners. One a lad of under twenty had shot a 

 Swan the previous winter, but they both said these birds were 

 extremely rare thereabouts and only occasionally seen. 



Brant or "Black Brant" as they call them are rather com- 

 mon, they told us, and White Brant are seen almost every 

 winter, and are sometimes shot. I suppose this is the Greater 

 Snow Goose, a species not abundant on the Atlantic coast north 

 of Virginia, but which has previously been recorded from Dela- 

 ware. 



White-winged Coots and Buzzard Coots, which I take to he 

 Scoters, are said to be more or less abundant during the colder 

 weather. They recognize two forms of the Black Duck, and 

 say the smaller or Nigger Black Duck occasionally nests with 

 them, while the other, Red-paddle they style it, is larger, and 

 never stops over to breed, which agrees entirely with the recog- 

 nized habits of the two forms, I believe. Carrying out the plan 

 made that evening, we were up and out at five o'clock next 

 morning and walked to some fine tracts of pine timber near the 

 south side of the bay. A strong, cold northwest wind continued 

 all morning, and it proved a poor time to observe birds. Occa- 

 sionally we found a sheltered nook, and noticed that a few 

 Warblers yet lingered. Pine Warblers were singing and prob- 

 ably preparing to nest. Several Myrtle Warblers were seen, and 

 an Indigo Bird and Scarlet Tanager were heard singing. A 

 solitary Acadian Flycatcher and a p.air of Ovenbirds were 

 seen and heard. I was much disappointed that the cold wind 

 continued, as this was our last chance to look up the birds, 

 and in such weather there was not much to be seen. Com- 



