60 BULLETIN U3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



blubber or meat and exposed on the beach, while the short line is securely 

 fastened to a stake driven into the sand and carefully concealed in the snow. 

 The gull picks up the tempting morsel and swallows it and, of course, is caught 

 by the stick, which turns sidewise across his gullet, and his struggles to 

 escape fix it more firmly. 



Winter. — Although some individuals, principally young birds, re- 

 main as far north as Greenland in winter, the great majority of 

 these gulls migrate southward when the sea ice freezes, and their 

 feeding grounds are covered with ice and snow, but winter must 

 be well upon us before we need look for them on the New England 

 coast. They are always rare here and find the southern limit of 

 their normal winter range about Long Island. "Wlien on our coasts 

 they may be seen among the flocks of herring gulls which frequent 

 our harbors and beaches, acting as scavengers, intent only on finding 

 a good food supply. Mcllwraith (1894) says: 



During the winter months the " burgomaster," as this species is usually 

 named, may be seen roaming around the shores of Lake Ontario, seeking what 

 it may devour, and it is not very scrupulous either as regards quantity or 

 quality. 



On the Pacific coast it winters as far south as Monterey, asso- 

 ciating with the common winter gulls of that region. 



Many years ago Mr. Ridgway (1886) described the glaucous gulLs 

 of the coasts of Alaska and adjacent waters as a new species under 

 the name Larus barrovianus, the size and the shape of the bill being 

 the chief distinguishing character. Twenty years later Doctor 

 D wight (1906) argued that this species was untenable, and it was 

 removed from the check list. Recently, however. Dr. H. C. Ober- 

 holser (1918) has resurrected harrovianus, as a subspecies of hyper- 

 horeus, on the claim that the Alaska bird is smaller and has a 

 darker mantle than the birds from Greenland or from Europe. 

 Whether this claim is well founded or not, it is apparently a fact 

 that the characters he ascribes to the Alaska bird hold true in a 

 large majority of the specimens, though there are some exceptions 

 to the rule. Doctor Dwight, however, still maintains that the pro- 

 posed race is unworthy of recognition in nomenclature. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range. — Circumpolar, including practically all the Arctic 

 coasts and islands of both hemispheres. In North America south to 

 eastern Labrador (Cape Harrison), Newfoundland (west coast and 

 in the interior), James Bay (east side), northern Hudson Bay (Cape 

 Fullerton), Arctic coast of Canada and Alaska, Bering Sea coast of 

 Alaska (south to the Kuskoquim River) and Pribilof Islands (Wal- 



