38 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



unpalatable. With a few exceptions, the species other than 

 the mergansers, which frequent fresh water, feed largely on 

 a vegetable diet, consisting of the seeds of various weeds 

 and grasses, the tender blades of grasses, or the stems and 

 roots of different aquatic plants. The flesh of the seed 

 and plant-eating ducks is of course palatable. Herons, 

 bitterns and egrets, although found alono; the sea-coast, are 

 more numerous about ponds, lakes, swamps and water 

 courses, in the interior. These birds devour fish, frogs, 

 snakes, crayfish and lizards, also sometimes small birds and 

 mammals, and they likewise eat different kinds of insects. 

 Rails, coots and gallinules feed largely on different forms of 

 insect life, and they also obtain a large part of their suste- 

 nance from the seeds and tender shoots of divers weeds and 

 grasses which grow in abundance in their swampy and boggy 

 resorts. 



Although a few of the shore birds feed to a limited extent 

 on seeds, grasses, and the roots and stems of other water 

 plants, their dietary is mainly made up of numerous kinds of 

 insect life. Most of these birds are found about the sea- 

 coasts or along the shores of rivers, lakes and ponds. 



The Bartramian sandpiper, or upland plover, as it is 

 generally called by hunters, and the golden and black- 

 bellied plovers, feed occasionally on berries. 



Land Birds. 

 Of one hundred and ninety species of land birds attributed 

 to this State, it is said one hundred and twenty breed here. 

 About thirty species of the raptores, or the eagles, hawks 

 and owls, are recorded as occurring in Massachusetts as 

 residents, and transitory sojourners. The sparrow hawk 

 rears his young in the hollow limbs of trees, selecting usually 

 the deserted holes of woodpeckers ; the marsh hawk nests 

 on the ground in swampy places, but the other members of 

 the hawk tribe generally build rude nests of sticks, twigs, 

 bark, etc., on high trees in the forest, or deposit their eggs 

 on rocky ledges. Most species of owls nidificate in holes in 

 trees or in the deserted nests of crows and hawks. The 

 short-eared owl, like the snowy owl, a native of the far 

 north, nests on the ground. 



