MAMMAL STUDY—A LIFETIME PROJECT
Occasionally Whales, Seals, and Porpoises are sighted off the beach. These are true aquatic mammals. We have only listed the mammals regularly found living on the Neck. To see all of them is a summer’s project, and to study their life histories is equally exciting and challenging.
A few books to help you are:
William H. Burt and Richard P. Grossenheider, A Field Guide to the Mammals. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1952. $3.95 Victor H. Cahalane, Mammals of North America. New York: Macmillan, 1947. $7.95 William J. Hamilton, Jr., The Mammals of Eastern United States. Ithaca, N. Y.: Comstock, 1943. Out of print. Available in Museum of Science Library. Ralph S. Palmer, The Mammal Guide: Mammals of North America North of Mexico. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1954. $4.95 Herbert S. Zim and D. F. Hoffmeister, Mammals: A Guide to Familiar American Species. New York: Golden Press, 1955. Cloth $2.50, paper $1.00
Chapter 7
WINGS OVER THE SAND
More than any other form of nature, birds invite the notice of the casual naturalist. Their specializations, their plumage, and their song all serve as attractive bait for our attention.
It is not surprising, then, that more books have been written about birds than any other life form, and that many of these have been directed especially to the layman.
Although more than 150 species of birds may appear during the course of a year at Crane’s Beach, only a small number will be described here in any detail. Many of these will be summer birds that regularly nest on Castle Neck.
The common and scientific names of the birds listed below are in accordance with the nomenclature in the latest edition (5th) of the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list (1957).