RR 
Birds of Massachusetts. 229 
sachusetts. Dr. Brewer classes it with those that 
spend the winter here; but the greater proportion 
must go on, since they are common at that season, 
on the southern inlets and rivers. While here, they _ 
keep in the salt water, diving with great celerity, i 
and soon becoming so familiar with the gun, as to — 
hide under water whenever they hear it. Nuttall 
mentions that the stomach of those which he has 
opened has generally contained quantities of their 
own feathers, plucked from the breast and swal- 
lowed. Audubon says the stomach contains hair- 
like substances rolled together like the pellets of 
owls; particulars which require more explanation 
than our present acquaintance with their habits 
enables any naturalist to give. 
The PrEp-sr;LED Gress, or Doscnick, Podiceps 
Carolinensis, comes to us from the north early in 
autumn, and remains till the approach of winter. 
Those found here are generally young. Their food 
consists of plants, seeds, water insects and small 
fish, together with which they swallow gravel. In 
the gizzards of some which Audubon examined, he 
found collections like those just mentioned, which 
consisted of the down of thistles and other plants, 
which had been swallowed together with the seed. 
These birds dive with great quickness, and use 
their wings under water; they sink so gently as to 
leave no ripple showing where they went down, 
nothing but the small end of the bill remains above, 
and this easily escapes observation, particularly among 
