























SEA-SIDE ORNITHOLOGY. 231 
marshy woodlands that skirt the ocean, and fish along the 
edges of creeks, in the more shallow water and pools of 
the marshes, or in the flats left bare by the receding tide. 
These are the Green, the Night, and the great Blue Herons, 
the Least and the Common Bittern. Three others, the 
smaller Blue Heron, the Snowy Egret, and the larger White 
Egret, in the calm weather of midsummer, are occasionally 
tempted to visit our coast. They are, however, only vagrant 
and adventurous individuals, and their visits are rare, acci- 
dental, and irregular. Nor are our resident species very 
abundant. The absence of large tracts of low swampy 
woods near the seaboard is not favorable to their protection 
or increase among us. 
In the marshes and low swampy islands near the coast, 
occur in more.or less abundance the Common Sora or Caro- 
lina Rail, the Virginia Rail, the American Coot, and the 
Florida Gallinule. The last two are not common, but both 
I am persuaded breeds with us, the evidence of which will 
sooner or later be made to appear by the actual discovery 
of their nests and eggs. The young of both have been ob- 
tained in our marshes in midsummer, and the Florida Galli- 
nule has also been obtained near Boston in midwinter. 
Of the true plovers only one, the Piping Plover ( ZEgialites 
melodus), is common to our sea-beaches during the breeding 
Season. The Killdeer is found only in a few inland locali- 
ties. The Golden, the Black-bellied, and the Ring Plover, 
are only spring and autumn visitants to our coast; and Wil- 
son's Plover, if found at all, is only a vagrant wanderer that 
has been tempted to stray into a strange region. It does 
not belong to our coast, and if ever, is very rarely found. 
Once numerous on the beaches of Nantasket and Chelsea, 
n but now nearly or quite driven from them, the Piping Plover 
18 still found along the coast of Maine and in the less fre- 
quented portions of our own shore, and is one of their most 
interesting features. It is met with on the entire Atlantic 
coast, from Florida to the St. Lawrence, and is nowhere 

