556 
BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
Their plaintive cry is heard throughout the season, and they 
remain longer than any of the shore birds, often being found in 
considerable numbers, I am told, till October 15th. In their 
plumage they are generally in a transition stage from the summer 
to the winter coat, specimens with the black breast and belly 
being quite common, although not in the majority. 
Wilson’s snipe is a rare visitor. Nearly every year one or two 
are seen on the freshwater brooks, but the country is not adapted 
to their habits, and no conclusions can be drawn from their 
absence. 
Of the ducks, by far the most common, as would be expected, 
are the dusky and marsh ducks. The country with its numerous 
small ponds and dense thickets of bushes is particularly adapted 
to their breeding habits ; and twenty-five years ago when “ the 
moss” was practically undisturbed by visitors during the summer, 
they bred in large numbers, and on my arrival I always found 
many broods of half-grown birds in the ponds, which became 
able to fly only in September. Now “the moss” is much more 
frequented in the summer than formerly, and the number of 
breeding birds is much less. Large numbers of migratory birds, 
however, make the island a stopping place, arriving in large 
numbers from the 10th to the 25th of September. By the 7th of 
October, I am told, they have usually all left. Most of them have, 
the olive-green leg and foot, and the majority are birds of that 
season, i. e. young, but the large variety with the orange-red leg 
and foot, the so-called Hudson Bay duck, is not uncommon late 
in September, and I have never been able to see any difference in 
their habitat. The two varieties fly together. Breeding in con- 
finement has, I believe, proved that the orange-red variety is only 
an older bird. They feed almost entirely on the seeds of the eel- 
grass (Zostera marina). 
Some five years ago I obtained an adult drake mallard that 
was flying with a small flock of dusky ducks. It is the only 
specimen I have ever seen on the island, and as it was wholly 
unknown to the local gunner, it must be a very rare visitant. 
The blue-and-green-winged teal vary very much in numbers 
in different years, but on the whole are much less numerous than 
in the seventies. I have rarely found them on the island on my 
