16 NOTES ON THE 



different shades of brown, and obscure spots and blotches 

 of lilac/' They measure usually about 2.20 by 1.60, but often 

 somewhat less. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Head, neck, entire under plumage, rump and tail, white; 

 back and wings light bluish-gray; the ends of the five outer 

 primaries, and the outer web of the first, black; fourth and 

 fifth have small white tips; bill greenish-yellow; iris reddish- 

 brown; legs and feet brownish-black, with a green tinge. 



Length, 17; wing, 12; tail, 6; bill, 1.50; tarsus, 1.25. 



Habitat, northern America. 



LARUS 4RGENTATUS SMITHSONIANUS Coues. (51.) 



AMERICAN HERRING GULL. 



This beautiful Gull arrives in the lower part of the State 

 about the first of April, and works its way northward so delib- 

 erately as to make it not improbable that individuals may be 

 seen almost any spring as late as the 10th of May. None 

 remain in the middle and southern parts of the State through 

 the summer, but there is scarcely a doubt left, in the absence 

 of absolute certainty, that they breed at Mille Lacs lake, and 

 other large northern lakes, within our boundary. Local obser- 

 vers report several different kinds of Gulls breeding on the 

 infrequented islands of those lakes, and Mr. Washburn found 

 from their size abundant reason for believing them to be this 

 species. In his visit to Otter Tail county in the latter part of 

 October he found them at Dead lake in considerable numbers 

 associated with other species of Gulls. "At Lake Mille Lacs," 

 he says *' after the wind has been blowing from the east a day 

 or more, these Gulls and the two following species, viz. ; L. 

 delawarensis and L. Philadelphia, are plenty along the west 

 shore, flying up and down the beach, and occasionally alighting 

 to pick up soft lacustrine molluscs washed ashore with the 

 weed matter. About two miles from the southwestern shore 

 of the lake lie three barren, rocky islands that are much fre- 

 quented by Gulls in the breeding season. 



"The larger of the three, called Stone island, (Spirit island 

 by the Indians) containing about three-fourths of an acre, and 

 with its top about 20 feet above the surface of the water, af- 

 fords on its rocky surface a nesting place for hundreds of Gulls. " 



From about the 20th of September this species begins to ap- 

 pear in the lakes in gradually increasing numbers, the last of 



