BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



93 



Great Duck Island, say : " At daylight large numbers of gulls leave the island 

 and go to sea for food ; and the length of time they remain away is governed 

 probably by the distance they have to go to find fish. Some days they return 

 quite early and on others much later. The manner of flight when returning 

 from one of these food trips is entirely different from that of the ordinary excur- 

 sions made from the breeding grounds ; it is made close to the surface of the 

 water, very direct, one bird following another, and is quite rapid. Sometimes 

 the birds show marked evidences of fatigue." 



Herring Gulls are very social or gregarious, feeding, sleeping, and resting 

 together in flocks ; in fact it seems probable that all the Gulls of Ipswich 

 Bay often gather together in one large flock. The nights, especially during 

 stormy weather, are spent on the upper parts of the beaches beyond the reach 

 of the tides. When they are disturbed from one part of the beach they go to 

 another and it is probable that they often spend the night on the water. 



On July 23d, 1904, in a strong northeaster, I noticed the Herring Gulls 

 pouring in from the sand bars where they had been feeding, drifting along side- 

 wise as they flew, trying to keep their heads to the gale, and finally swinging 

 around and dropping head to the wind on the broad plateaux of dry sand back of 

 the beach at Ipswich. In the five minutes between 5.45 and 5.50 p. m., 108 

 birds came in to the flock that already numbered several hundred, and they con- 

 tinued to fly in, generally at this rate, sometimes more, sometimes less, until 

 6.25 p. m., when they suddenly ceased to come. The densely packed flock on 

 the sand must have then numbered two or three thousand birds and perhaps 

 more. Disturbed, the multitudes rose, to settle again farther down the beach. 

 On July 27th, a clear moonlight night, I again observed the Herring Gulls gather 

 on Ipswich Beach, but, roused by my presence at 7.30 p. M., they flew towards 

 Coffin's Beach, where they apparently settled for the night. At least I did not 

 hear or see them throughout the night, although I could distinguish Night Her- 

 ons in the moonlight and could hear the call notes of various shore birds. It is 

 true, however, that I found one Herring Gull on the beach that night, a wing- 

 tipped bird that took to the water on my approach, and swam off. Even in this 

 helpless condition the Gull appeared to prefer the beach to the sea at night. 

 At 4.05 the next morning, the sun rising at 4.34, the Gulls began to appear out 

 of the dim light from the direction of Coffin's Beach, and I counted 448 going 

 north along the beach before 4.15 a. m. At this time I could make out a great 

 multitude of two thousand or more, circling about and alighting on the bars off 

 Coffin's Beach and near the mouth of the Essex River. Again, at 4.30 a. m., I 

 counted a flock of 147 Gulls going by me, while the numbers at Coffin's Beach 

 appeared undiminished. In these huge flocks it is impossible to more than 

 guess at the proportion of full adults, but I noted it at five percent. 



