" s ' " ] Mackay, Notes on Certain Water Bints. 2 2"? 



NOTES ON CERTAIN WATER BIRDS IN MASSA- 

 CHUSETTS. 



BY GEORGE II. MACKAY. 



The entire month of March was unusually mild and warm, 

 without storms, southwest and west winds generally prevailing. 

 I do not remember ever having experienced a similar one. I 

 passed through Vineyard Sound on my way to Nantucket Island, 

 Mass., on March 9, 1894; also on my return on the 20th of the 

 same month. On the 2Sth of April I again made the trip, 

 returning on May 5. I saw but few sea fowl of any description. 

 I was on Muskeget Island, Mass., March 11, remaining until the 

 iSth. Prior to my arrival there had been about two hundred 

 American Eiders {Somateria dresseri) living between Muskeget 

 and Tuckernuck Islands, half of which had been killed, and a 

 portion of the remainder driven away, before I arrived. Of these 

 two hundred birds, three quarters were males. This number is 

 less than were sojourning here last year and is undoubtedly owing 

 to the scarcity of shell-fish food in this particular locality. The 

 few birds which remained after my arrival apparently departed 

 on the 1 6th of March. 



During the latter part of February, 1S94, about two thousand 

 American Eiders had been living around Cape Poge, Martha's 

 Vineyard, and what is new in my experience, large numbers of 

 them frequented daily the Great Pond on Chappaquidic Island, 

 M. V., to feed. They had undoubtedly observed the large 

 numbers of Scoters which also frequented this pond to feed and 

 followed their example. It may be interesting to know, in this 

 connection, that those Eiders frequenting the north side of 

 Nantucket, also for the first time in numbers, came into the 

 harbor of Nantucket to feed. The cause in both instances was 

 undoubtedly the better food supply. At Woods Holl, Mass., 

 Mr. Vinal Edwards informed me that the American Eiders had 

 again appeared in 1S94, as in 1893, in very large numbers during 

 the latter part of the winter, his estimate of their number being 

 between four and five thousand birds, which daily frequented the 



