BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



I 4 I 



white on the body. To one who is familiar with their winter plumage, it is a 

 great shock to see them in summer plumage, which appears to be entirely adopted 

 in some cases by May 10th. They are then like negatives of their winter plum- 

 age. Instead of having a white neck and a dark spot about the eye they have a 

 black neck and a light spot about the eye. The color of the feathers about the 

 eye remains in reality nearly the same, a mouse gray, but it appears dark with a 

 white neck, and white with a black neck. The winter birds have besides the 

 patch around the eye, a black spot on the side of the neck which is a good field 

 mark. Young birds in the autumn are sometimes very dark and inconspicuous, 

 lacking much of the white plumage of the adults. The characteristic grayish 

 white patch about the eye is, however, diagnostic. 



63 [155] Histrionicus histrionicus (Linn.). 

 Harlequin Duck ; Lord-and-Lady. 



Very rare winter visitor; November 11, November 20. 



There are two specimens of this curious Duck in the Peabody Academy 

 collection : a male from Baker's Island, undated, and a young male from Marble- 

 head, dated November nth, 1883. There is a male in the collection of the 

 Brookline High School from Swampscott, labeled November 20th, 1877. 



[156] Camptolaimus labradorius (Gmel.). Labrador Duck; Pied Duck. Two males of 

 this now extinct bird were killed in November, 1S54, by Nicholas Pike at the mouth of the 

 Ipswich River; a female was shot by Arthur Thomas at Swampscott, in September, 1S62, and 

 C. J. Maynard says he thinks he saw one of these birds in Plum Island River in the winter of 

 about 1872. This has already been considered in the chapter on Ornithological History 

 (see page 62). 



[159] Somateria mollissima borealis (Brehm ). Greenland Eider. This bird may 

 rarely appear as a winter visitor off the coast, but I have no definite records nor specimens 

 from the County. Putnam speaks of it as abundant, but refers, of course, to the American 

 Eider. 



64 [160] Somateria dresseri Sharpe. 

 American Eider; "Sea Duck"; " Canvasback." 



Uncommon winter visitor ; November 19 to April 19. 



" Sea Duck " is the name by which the fishermen know this bird along the 



