34 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



Such favored regions among the dunes as well as on the islands and hill- 

 sides near the sea were favorite resorts of the American aborigines before the 

 arrival of the whites, as is attested not only by scattered stone arrowheads and 

 hatchets which have been found there, but also by the presence of shellheaps 

 composed largely of the clam, and, in some places, of the oyster. In these 

 shellheaps, bones of birds, among them those of the Great Auk, of fish, and of 

 mammals may be found, as well as bits of pottery, stone and bone implements. 



Of the birds of the dunes, one must name the Ipswich Sparrow first, for 

 here it was, in 1868, that Mr. C. J. Maynard discovered it. The other winter 

 birds characteristic of the dunes are the Horned Lark, Snow Bunting, and Lap- 

 land Longspur, although the Longspur generally disappears after the middle of 

 January. All feed on the seeds of the beach-grass, and literally cover the sand 

 with their tracks. Another bird common at all seasons in the dunes, but 

 especially abundant in winter, roosting there in considerable numbers, is the 

 American Crow. Here is the best place to find his food records, namely, his 

 ejected pellets, in which cranberries and bayberries, so common in the dunes, 

 are prominent. Another bird that may always be found among the dunes in 

 winter sheltered by the pines and feeding on bayberries is the Yellow-rumped 

 Warbler. Flickers and Chickadees frequent these same pines in winter and 

 enjoy the same nourishing berries, and one or two Red-breasted Nuthatches 

 may sometimes be found there. Crossbills and Pine Grosbeaks, in the winters 

 of their plenty, also feed there. 



Savanna Sparrows nest in numbers at the foot of the clumps of tall beach- 

 grass throughout the dunes, and on the edges of the tidal inlets from the marsh. 

 The nests of Red-winged Blackbirds and Bronzed Grackles are abundant in the 

 bogs and groves of birches. The Crow, in the absence of tall trees, builds 

 perforce in the stunted pines and birches, at times only ten or twelve feet from 

 the ground. Black-billed Cuckoos, Kingbirds, Song Sparrows, Northern Yellow- 

 throats, and Robins, are all common summer residents. Tree Swallows nest there 

 occasionally in hollow trees and Bank Swallows in the wind-cuttings of the dunes. 

 All the Swallows collect in great numbers in the dunes during the fall migra- 

 tions, particularly the Tree Swallow which feeds on the bayberries. A few 

 Piping Plover still lay their eggs in shallow depressions of the sand, but the 

 Common, Arctic, and Least Terns, found breeding among the dunes in the late- 

 sixties by Maynard, have long since ceased to nest there. 



During the spring and autumn, the dunes with their sheltering bogs and 

 groves at times swarm with migrants resting along this great highway by the 

 sea, on their way to and from their nesting places in the North. The American 

 Pipit abounds in the autumn, but generally eludes us in the spring. Migrant 

 Warblers are easily found and studied there, as the islands of trees are so few 



