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228 SEA-SIDE ORNITHOLOGY. 
the marshes and the edges of ponds in the lowlands near the 
sea, rarely going more thane a mile or two inland. They ap- 
peared to Mini by preference, for frogs, field-mice, and the 
smaller quadrupeds, and, more rarely, the smaller birds. 
For some unexplained reason their visits are now compara- 
tively very rare. The Black-hawk, by some supposed to be 
only a darker race of this species, and once occasionally to 
be met with, is now unknown. 
.. The Great-footed Falcon, though by no means confined to 
our coast, is yet a conspicuous feature to the sea-side when- 
ever or wherever there are sea-fowl to attract him. ‘But, 
with the ever inereasing diminution of these attractions, this 
faleon now only pays us angel visits, except on the eastern 
coast of Maine. 
In enumerating the conspicuous and characteristic fea- 
tures of our coast scenery, the crow must not be forgotten. 
Wherever muscles or clams can be dug at low water, or 
wherever a storm has thrown upon the shore an unusual 
aceumulation of garbage, we find these sagacious wreckers 
on the alert, eager to gather their full share of the flotson or 
jetson, as the case may be. Among our sea-side visitors, 
this invaluable but unpopular race are among the first to 
come, and the last of the migratory birds to leave our coast, 
and a few remain all winter. 
The entire family of swallows, except the Purple Martin, 
are eminently sea-side birds ; and most so, the White-bellied. 
In the eastern portions of Maine, and in all the islands of 
the Bay of Fundy, the abundance of this swallow is very 
remarkable. In Massachusetts they are far more abundant 
near the coast than in the interior. The Barn Swallow has 
* 
. been educated into resorting to the use of sheds, barns, 

ches, and eaves of houses for a nesting-place, yet we can 
n . remember when the rocks of Newport and Nahant were 
p their primitive and natural breeding-places. The Cliff Swal- 
, since 1809, hare. herome: more and more abundant 
i Martin has ever been content | to 


