SOME BIRDS SEEN AT MARTHA S VINEYARD. 109 



stretches of sandy beach offer proper hospitality and fit- 

 ting, to the sea birds of my list. 



There are brooks and cranberry bogs which the catbird 

 loves ; bayberries by the acre for the myrtle warblers ; 

 grapes which happily escape the gathering hand of the 

 "jell woman" and feed the robins instead; and pines 

 which attract the crossbills even in July. 



The island offers a sheltered wooded side on the north- 

 western border for the land birds. The South Shore, with 

 its continuous row of fresh-w'ater ponds separated b}^ low 

 sand dunes from the pounding ocean, offers rare attrac- 

 tions to the ducks, gulls, herons, sandpipers, etc. 



Just here lies the difference between Martha's Vineyard 

 and Nantucket, which is all sand dunes and scrub pines, 

 or Martha's Vineyard and Baker's Island, or our own 

 Shoals, which are all rock. The adjacent Gulf Stream 

 tempers the climate and the sandy shoals which surround 

 the island, make the water warmer than about the less 

 favored islands of the North Shore. Topographically, 

 then, Martha's Vineyard is favored from the ornithologist's 

 point of view. The following is the list of birds seen dur*- 

 ing five seasons at Vineyard Haven, from April ist to Oct. 

 25th. Consequently it is deficient in many water birds 

 which frequent Vineyard Sound in winter. It contains 

 only 107 species : 



Holboell's Grebe. Greater Yellow-legs. 



Horned " Solitary Sandpiper. 



Red-billed " Bartraman " 



Loon. Spotted " 



Black-backed Gull. Black-bellied Plover. 



Herring " Semipalmated " 



Ring-billed " Piping " 



Laughing Tern. Quail. 



Wilson's . " Ruffed Grouse. 



Arctic " Heath Hen {everyiahere else ex- 



Least " tinct). 



Greater Shearwater. Pheasaut (introduced). 



Gannet. Sharp-shinned Hawk. 



Red-breasted Merganser Marsh " 



