THE IPSWICH SPARROW. 19 
trodden upon, and then tumble along over the ground, as if injured, to 
divert your attention from their treasures, which stand very nearly on 
their pointed ends in the deep cup prepared for them. The birds are tame 
and certainly deserve the pleasing accounts that have been written of them 
by Audubon, Nuttall, Dr. Coues, and others. 
Of the two species of Ducks that are summer residents on the island, the 
Red-breasted Merganser is the more abundant, although both are much 
diminished in numbers compared with what they used to be, and the foxes 
are now making sad havoc with the handful that remains. Dr. Gilpin 
mentions ‘* Black Duck (Awas obscu7o) and the Shell Drake (Merganser).” 
Where a Duck can be seen sitting on her nest in an exposed situation, as is 
often the case, the foxes do not have to search for them, and it is only some 
of the nests hidden away in the brier-patches that can possibly escape. 
The rarest of the summer residents is the Spotted Sandpiper, for I 
knew of but two pairs on the island. 
I have now enumerated. with the exception of the Ipswich Sparrow, all 
the birds that breed, but there are many other visitors. I used to see almost 
daily a flock of Kittiwake Gulls (/tssa tridactyla), but dissection of speci- 
mens showed that there were no signs whatever of breeding. Occasionally 
single birds or even flocks of the Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls 
(Larus argentatus smithsonianus and L. marinus) were seen, and on fogg 
nights Petrels (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) used to come about the lighthouses 
in numbers, following their nocturnal proclivities, and wandering doubtless 
from their burrows on the Nova Scotia coast. A few dusky Jaegers 
(« Gull Chasers’ or ‘ Bos’ns,’ as they are called) were sometimes seen far out 
over the bars. The only specimen I obtained was a bleached and 
mummified carcass of Stercorarius parasiticus that had washed up on 
the beach. During the early days of my stay a few belated migrants, 
chiefly Warblers, played at hide and seek about the barns and woodpiles, 
wondering perhaps how they had got into a country so devoid of sheltering 
trees and bushes. Soon they all disappeared, and it was later when 
waifs from the mainland (such for instance as Janco hyemalis, Empidonax 
flaviventris, Chetura pelagica, and others) made their appearance, 
possibly losing their way in the fog or drifted along by the wind. After 
loitering for a few days they, too, would disappear, to be replaced later 
by other waifs. I was informed that in the spring few Shore-birds or 
Ducks visit the island, and that in the autumn they are not as abundant 
as the situation of the island would seem to promise. 
If now I have been successful in placing before my readers a rough picture 
of the island home of the Ipswich Sparrow, they will better appreciate the 
historical sketch and life-history of the bird which I am about to present, 
prefacing the same with the necessary synonymy and descriptions. 
