MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



CHAPTER I. 



TOPOGRAPHY AND FAUNAL AREAS. 



"The forme of the earth here in the superficies of it, is neither too flat in the plainnesse, nor 

 too high in nils, but partakes of both in mediocritie, and fit for pasture, or for plow or meddow 

 ground, as men please to employ it ... . [It] hath water enough, both salt and fresh, the greatest 

 sea in the world, the Atlanticke sea, runs all along the coast there of . . . . Also wee have store 

 of excellent harbours for ships, as at Cape Anne, .... and at Salem." — Higginson, "JVew 

 England's Plantation" 1630. 



Essex County is in the northeast corner of Massachusetts, between lati- 

 tude 42 25' and 42 55' north, and longitude jo° 35' and 71° 15' west. The 

 most southern point is some seven miles north of Boston. The County has a 

 total area of about 500 square miles, and a coast line of about 100 miles. It 

 includes the following cities and towns, thirty-five in all : Amesbury, Andover, 

 Beverly, Boxford, Bradford, Danvers, Essex, Georgetown, Gloucester, Groveland, 

 Hamilton, Haverhill, Ipswich, Lawrence, Lynn, Lynnfield, Manchester, Marble- 

 head, Merrimac, Methuen, Middleton, Nahant, Newbury, Newburyport, North 

 Andover, Peabody, Rockport, Rowley, Salem, Salisbury, Saugus, Swampscott, 

 Topsfield, Wenham, West Newbury. Magnolia lies partly in Gloucester, and 

 partly in Manchester on the coast. Gloucester, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lynn, 

 and Salem each have a population of over 25,000, Lynn having nearly if not 

 quite 70,000 inhabitants. The population of the whole County is about 

 350,000. Nearly all the towns date back to the early part of the seventeenth 

 century, the oldest, Salem, having been settled in 1628, while Essex was set 

 apart as a shire or county, in 1643. 



The County is nearly diamond-shaped, with four almost equal sides. The 

 apex of the diamond is at the junction of the New Hampshire boundary and the 

 coast line. The eastern angle is at the end of Cape Ann, the western nearly on 

 a level with the most southern part of New Hampshire, so that a portion, per- 

 haps a third of the County, is as far north as southern New Hampshire. 



To the north of Cape Ann is a series of nearly straight, sandy beaches, 

 interrupted by the mouths of rivers, and backed by sand dunes, extensive salt 

 marshes, and numerous tidal estuaries and creeks. Beginning on the northern 

 border, which is also the boundary of the State from New Hampshire, the 



