6 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



Brewster, A. B. Clark, Julian M. Dodge, G. M. Magee, Henry A. Purdie, J. H. 

 Sears, Bradford Torrey, M. A. Walton, George O. Welch. All of these I knew 

 personally. To my friend William Brewster I had turned for many years for 

 judicious advice and unfailing help. To many of us personally, and to all 

 ornithologists in general, his death is a very great loss. Julian M. Dodge I have 

 missed greatly. He always placed at my disposal his camp in the Topsfield 

 Marshes, a region where with him I have made many interesting observations. 

 Mr. Purdie and Mr. Torrey, each in his own way, were of help to me in writing 

 the original Memoir. They are widely missed. Mr. Welch was the last of the 

 band of older taxidermists who contributed so much to our knowledge of the 

 bird-life of Essex County. I am glad to be able to add that Mr. Charles J. 

 Maynard, always to be remembered as the discoverer of the Ipswich Sparrow, is 

 still active and still visits the Ipswich dunes. 



A new source of information on the birds of the County was unearthed by 

 Dr. Glover M. Allen'^ who published an account of a hitherto unknown ornithol- 

 ogist, Benjamin F. Damsell of Amesbury, with notes gleaned from his records and 

 collections. Mr. Damsell, a carriage builder by trade, was born in Amesbury, 

 1854, and died there in 191 1. He never published anything but left note-books 

 covering a period of thirty years from 1880 to 191 1. Dr. Allen says: "The bird 

 records seem to be made with much caution and as they are frequently substan- 

 tiated by the actual specimens, may in most cases be deemed wholly trustworthy. 

 Part of the collection was destroyed but the remainder is in good condition and 

 consists of several hundred mounted specimens, some of the more interesting of 

 which have been acquired by the Boston Society of Natural History for its New 

 England collection." 



As for my own work, I can state that, although most of my life is necessarily 

 spent in Boston, I have continued my observations on the avifauna of Essex 

 County as much as possible. I have spent a month of every summer at my house 

 not far from the dunes at Ipswich, with the exception of the years when my vaca- 

 tions have been in Labrador or elsewhere. Since 1915, 1 have gone back and forth 

 daily from Boston during the remainder of the summer. In winter my week-end 

 trips to Ipswich from Saturday night to Sunday night have become increasingly 

 more frequent, and I have visited from time to time other parts of the County. 



As in the case of the original Memoir I am greatly indebted to my friend, 

 Dr. Glover M. Allen, for his assistance in reviewing the manuscript and proof. 



I Allen, Glover M. " An Essex County Ornithologist." Auk, vol. 30, p. 19-29, 1913. 



