the Dovekies and Brunnich’s Murres, or little battleships, 
as someone has fancifully called them. One never gets tired 
of watching these two interesting northern strangers. 
From Little Nahant we went to the Forty Steps, and 
thence to the cliffs on the Lodge and James estates. At the 
latter place, the most interesting bird we saw was a Short¬ 
eared Owl. He was perched on a crag overlooking the water 
and was sharply outlined against the sky. We got close 
enough to him to plainly see, with our glasses, the color of 
his eyes, the fine markings of the plumage and the two 
little tufts of feathers, like ears, protruding from his head. 
He finally resented further approach and circled out over 
the water toward the Lodge estate. To me, it seemed odd 
for an owl to be flying out to sea, even for a short distance. 
We followed to his apparent objective, and while we were 
wondering what had become of him, he flew up almost at 
our feet and circled back to where we first observed him. 
From the rocks on the Lodge estate we had a fine oppor¬ 
tunity to watch two Black Guillemots in winter plumage, 
gracefully riding the waves and diving frequently for food. 
The bird in this plumage surely belies his name, as the 
striking thing about him is not the black but the amount 
of white he shows. On the harbor side, nearly opposite the 
Life-Saving Station, were approximately two hundred Black 
Ducks. 
Our list for the afternoon, which was satisfactory to us 
and may be interesting to others, follows: 
Holboell’s Grebe, Horned Grebe, Black Guillemot, Brun¬ 
nich’s Murre, Dovekie,, Great Black-backed Gull, Herring 
Gull, Red-breasted Merganser, Black Duck, Golden-eye, 
Barrow’s Golden-eye, Old-Squaw, Scoter. White-winged 
Scoter, Surf Scoter,, Short-eared Owl, White-breasted Nut¬ 
hatch and Chickadee. C. E. Chase. 
THE DRUMMING OF THE SNIPE. 
It was just before dusk on April 25, 1922, when a party 
of Club members gathered about a clump of bushes on the 
edge of Nichols Brook, a little stream which runs more or 
less parallel to East Street and eventually finds its way into 
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