238 The Ottawa Naturalist. [March 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



London, Ont. , Thursday, Feby. 14, 1907. 

 To the Editor of the Ottawa Naturalist: 



In your issue of May, 1902, I published a notice of the) 

 capture of the Longtailed Jaeger at Rondeau. Mr. J. H. Flem- 

 ing, Toronto, inquired from me about this bird,e stating that it 

 was probably the Parasitic Jaeger, not the Lonktailed. After aj 

 good deal of correspondance with him and study over the matter - 

 I met him recently in Toronto and we went over all the spccimans 

 carefully together and as a result I am convincel that he is quite, 

 correct and that all the characters upon which stress is laid in 1 

 the books for the separation of these two species are unre'iable. 



My birds answer to these characters but the important point? 

 which is not mentioned in any of the American books is the color/ 

 of the primary shafts, the Parasitic Jaeger having white shafts 

 throughout and the Longtail having only the first two or three 

 white and the rest dark. 



All the remaining characters seem to vary with indiv'dualsl 

 to such an extent that they become absolutely worthless for 

 diagnosis. Mr. Howard Saunders, London, England, who is] 

 considered the great living authority on the gull family, supplied. 

 Mr. Fleming with his information and after the careful examina- 

 tion which he and I made of all the available matter, I am not^. 

 only satisfied that Mr. Fleming is correct but feel that he shouldj 

 be congratulated on such careful work. When the authorities 

 make mistakes it takes exceptional care to find it out. 



W. E. SAUNDERS. 



