Vnl. Xll 
1S94 J 
MackAy, Notes on Certain Water Birds. 
2 23 
NOTES ON CERTAIN WATER BIRDS IN MASSA- 
CHUSETTS. 
BY GEORGE H. MACKAY. 
The entire month of March was unusually mild and warm, 
without storms, southwest and west winds generally prevailing. 
I do not remember ever having experienced a similar one. I 
passed through Vineyard Sound on my way to Nantucket Island, 
Mass., on March 9, 1894; also on my return on the 20th of the 
same month. On the 2Sth of April I again made the trip, 
returning on May 5. I saw but few sea fowl of any description. 
I was on Muskeget Island, Mass., March 11, remaining until the 
18th. Prior to my arrival there had been about two hundred 
American Eiders ( Somateria dresseri) living between Muskeget 
and Tuckernuck Islands, half of which had been killed, and a 
portion of the remainder driven away, before I arrived. Of these 
two hundred birds, three quarters were males. This number is 
less than were sojourning here last year and is undoubtedly owing 
to the scarcity of shell-fish food in this particular locality. The 
few birds which remained after my arrival apparently departed 
on the 1 6th of March. 
During the latter part of February, 1894, about two thousand 
American Eiders had been living around Cape Poge, Martha’s 
Vineyard, and what is new in my experience, large numbers of 
them frequented daily the Great Pond on Chappaquidic Island, 
M. V., to feed. They had undoubtedly observed the large 
numbers of Scoters which also frequented this pond to feed and 
followed their example. It may be interesting to know, in this 
connection, that those Eiders frequenting the north side of 
Nantucket, also for the first time in numbers, came into the 
harbor of Nantucket to feed. The cause in both instances was 
undoubtedly the better food supply. At Woods Holl, Mass., 
Mr. Vinal Edwards informed me that the American Eiders had 
again appeared in 1S94, as in 1893, in very large numbers during 
the latter part of the winter, his estimate of their number being 
between four and five thousand birds, which daily frequented the 
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