90 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



by N. Vickary, no date being given. In the collection of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History is a male taken at Nahant, December i6th, 1882. 



In old age the bird is almost pure white, lacking the blue mantle, and the 

 bird in this plumage was at one time considered a distinct species. Lams hutch- 

 insii, or Hutchin's Gull. R. L. Newcomb^ under this title reports one shot at 

 Lynn on November 30th, 1 869. 



I have never seen the Burgomaster but have always been on the lookout 

 for it, — a bird about the size of the Great Black-backed Gull with white wings. 



16 [43] Larus leucopterus Faber. 

 Iceland Gull. 



Accidental winter visitor. 



The only record I have for this bird is a specimen in the Peabody Academy 

 collection taken at Swampscott, by R. O. Wentworth. No date is given. 



17 [47] Larus marinus Linn. 

 Great Black-backed Gull; "Saddle-back." 



Common winter visitor ; (summer) ; July 17 to May i (June and July). 



A few birds occasionally pass the summer, there being, for example, two 

 adults and two immature birds at Ipswich Beach during the summer of 1903. 



This magnificent fellow has very much the same habits and haunts as the 

 Herring Gull. With his snowy white head and dark back he is very notice- 

 able, and it is not entirely inappropriate to mistake him, as has been done, for 

 a Bald Eagle. During the last of July, they begin to arrive from the north, and 

 in September one may occasionally see as many as one hundred together on the 

 beach. As early as July 17th, 1904, I found seven adults in a flock of Herring 

 Gulls on Ipswdch Beach. They associate freely with Herring Gulls, but are 

 even more shy, never in my experience allowing any one to approach within 

 gunshot, excepting in the protected harbors. Although they are sluggish flyers 

 at times, yet when a gale is blowing they are as active and graceful as Swal- 

 lows. They are apt to be tyrannical. I have seen one chase a Herring Gull, 



1 R. L. Newcomb: Forest and Stream, vol. 10, p. 155, 1878. 



