


SEA-SIDE ORNITHOLOGY. 291 
as still distinctive features. These are: the birds of prey 
chiefly found about the sea-coast; the smaller land-birds 
that are also maritime in their partialities ; shore-birds or 
waders ; sea-birds or swimmers ; and occasional and winter 
visitants. As we do not propose to prepare such an article 
as Prof. Lowell would call “nothing if not a catalogue,” and 
our limits do not permit an exhaustive sketch, we shall only 
briefly speak of those we regard as the most distinguishing 
characteristics of our seaboard, mentioning only a few that 
best typify these general divisions. 
The birds of prey that seem to belong to our seaboard 
are not many, either in their variety of species or in the 
number of the individuals. Even the Fish-hawk, so marked 
à feature on the sea-coast of New Jersey, finds our rocky 
shores an uncongenial or an unprofitable field, and is seldom 
` Seen from Cape Cod to Cape Elizabeth. A few occur on both 
shores of Long Island Sound. From thence until we come 
to the mouth of the Kennebec, they are entirely wanting. 
The same is very nearly true of the White-headed Eagle. 
On the coast of Maine both of these birds abound, and their 
large and conspicuous nests, surmounting the tops of the 
loftiest pines, often in full view of the highway, are a notice- 
able feature in the landscape. 
| the latter part of the summer and in the early fall, 
when the southward flight of many of the small birds has 
begun, the Barred Owls station themselves in ambush on the 
Coast and among the inner islands, as if to forestall the gun- 
. hers, who show them no mercy if they chance to meet them. 
Their noiseless flight and their inconspicuous plumage, so 
closely assimilating with the sandy dunes and rocky wastes, 
favor their success as marauders, and also their immunity 
from their rival hunters. The flight of the smaller waders 
_ and the young of the terns are their chief attraction at these 
times to the sea-shore. 
Less than twenty years ago our shores abounded, in spring 
and fall, with the Rough-legged Buzzard. They frequented 

