46 WINTER NOTES 
and others of equal interest with those already mentioned, 
we have but space to notice very briefly some of our win- 
ter water-fowl. Those found at this season inland or re- 
mote from the sea, ate so exceedingly few as scarcely to 
attract attention. They are confined exclusively to the 
tribes of Ducks and Grebes.. The Whistle-wing or Gold- 
en-eyed Duck (Bucephala Americana Baird), the Goos- 
ander or Sheldrake (Mergus Americanus Cass.) and the 
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus Reich.), are 
occasionally seen on the rivers about open water, being 
much more common at the beginning of the season or 
towards spring, than in mid-winter. Along our coast 
however, are found numerous representatives, many of 
which are visitors from more northern regions, and nearly 
all of which are of rare or of unknown occurrence very 
far inland. ‘These by their numbers serve most agreeably 
to enliven our bleak coast. Such are the Gannets and 
Shearwaters, Jager Gulls and Terns, with the Eider 
Duck, Puffin, Auks and Guillemots. 
The number of common species of winter birds is less 
than one-tenth the number of the common species in other 
seasons ; while the difference in the total number of indi- 
viduals is even much greater, a scarcity of birds being 
eminently, in our latitude, one of the characteristics of the 
season of winter. 
In reviewing carefully a complete list of our Winter 
Birds, we are forcibly struck with the small proportion 
of species that can be considered as regularly common. 
Thus, out of nearly sixty species of inland birds that are 
known to inhabit southern New England in winter, we 
find but fourteen that we can hope to meet with at all 
frequently ; the remaining seventy-six e cent. falling 
into the class of ene regularly occurring, migrants 
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