WATER BIRDS 



even several thousand on and near Ipswich 

 beach. Many of these, sometimes as many as 

 ninety per cent., are in the gray and mottled 

 immature plumage, and are probably non- 

 breeding birds. It is possible, however, that 

 some adults, j^erhaps only a few, are daily 

 excursionists from their breeding places in 

 Maine to the beaches of Essex County. 



The moving cause for the accumulation of 

 gulls in siunmer in this region is the great 

 abundance of dead fish so often found here, 

 and the herring gull is a very useful scavenger. 

 Young herring in their mad flight from larger 

 fish meet their death by thousands on the 

 sands, while hake, haddock and cod, as well 

 as dog-fish— those fierce and ravenous sharks 

 —are often stranded in the shallow water, 

 and, battered by the waves, are cast up on 

 the beach, — pursued and pursuer together. 

 Skates— curious kite-shaped sharks— and the 

 still more curious angler-fish or fishing-frog 

 also furnish food for gulls. The angler-fish 

 is so named because it is supposed to allure 

 its prey within reach of its great jaws by 

 means of a dangling tentacle that resembles 

 a rod, line and bait. One of these fish that I 

 found on the beach was three and a half feet 



125 



