SUPPLEMENT TO BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY 65 



flew when the gulls rose and circled off over the ocean in the direction of 

 Marblehead." 



The December 26 record was reported in Bird-Lore by Edmund and Lidian 

 E. Bridge.^ Twenty were seen. In a letter to me Mrs. Bridge writes: "The 

 Brant were first seen in flight ; they alighted not very far out but were frightened 

 and flew off toward Rockport." 



Brant are sufficiently uncommon at Ipswich, nowadays, to make it worth 

 while recording any visitation of these birds. On October 26, 191 3, in an easterly 

 storm with rain, six Brant scudding before the gale passed within long gunshot 

 over my head as I stood on a point of the beach. Later three more flew by out- 

 side and again two more over the dunes. j\Ir. J. F. Le Baron writes in his notes 

 for 1878: "My father tells me that in his youth Brant were very plenty along the 

 beach in stormy weather, and many were shot from the spits by lying flat on the 

 back and shooting as they flew over." 



While feeding in shallow water on eel-grass they tip up and show the white 

 triangle of the lower tail-coverts edged with black. In flight they look black from 

 in front but show the white belly from the side or rear. Their wings are black 

 and the distinctive white marks on the neck can be made out with a good glass. 



Their call resembles somewhat that of the Canada Goose, but has a roll to it. 



[175] Branta leucopsis (Bechst). Barnacle Goose. — Still on the doubtful list. 



78 [180] Olor columbianus (Ord). 



Whistling Swan. 

 Accidental visitor. 



[181] Olor buccinator (Rich.). Trumpeter Swan. — Believed to have occurred in the 

 County in the early days of the settlement; now almost if not quite extinct. 



[188] Mycteria americana Linn. Wood Ibis. — Still on the doubtful list. 



79 [190] Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.). 



Bittern. 



Common suminer resident. March 29 to October 23; (December 16). 



In the severe winter of 1917-18, on December 16, I flushed a Bittern from 

 the salt-marsh near my house at Ipswich. It flew several hundred yards and 

 alighted in a clump of tall grasses where I found it and again flushed it. There 

 was snow on the ground and the temperature that morning was 2° Fahrenheit. 



1 Bridge, E., and L. E. Bird-Lore, vol. 18, p. 20, 1916. 

 5 



