^6 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



always carry in my mind the picture of these splendid birds standing lovingly in 

 couples on the barren rocks of Labrador. 



20 [sijLarus argentatus Pont. 

 Herring Gull; "Gray Gull." 



Abundant resident ; does not breed. 



As in 1905, when " The Birds of Essex County " was published, the Herring 

 Gull continues to hold the center of the stage for the ornithologist along shore. In 

 a general way there has been an increase, but the numbers vary from year to year 

 dependent on the food supply. In the summer of 191 3, I spent the month of 

 August in camp in the Ipswich dunes and made many estimates of the Herring 

 Gulls that resorted to the beach. In the early half of the month there were about 

 12,000 of these birds, but they began to migrate south by August 18, and diminish 

 in numbers. 



When sand-lances^ {Ammodyles amcricanus) are plentiful and fill the shal- 

 lows and tide-pools with blue translucent masses and line the beach in silvery 

 windrows, then gulls and terns gather in large numbers. Larger fish, — cod, had- 

 dock, hake, and pollack, — are often stranded in shallow water probably attracted 

 by the small fry, and are thrown up in large numbers on the beach. These larger 

 fish in turn attract the dog-fish (Squahis acanthias), small sharks, which in turn 

 meet their fate in the breakers, and the beach becomes for the gulls a table of 

 plenty reeking with an ancient and fishy smell. This was the case in the summer 

 of 1913 when Herring Gulls were so plentiful. It was also the case in 1910; on 

 June 26 of that year I counted fourteen dog-fish within a dozen yards on the beach. 



In the summer of 1918, food on the beach was unusually scarce, sand-lances 

 were few, and although I estimated as many as 5,000 Herring Gulls at the beach 

 on June 23, after a severe southeast storm, the numbers had sunk to 2,000 on July 

 28, 1,000 on August II, and 200 on August 30. 



As in former years these summer flocks, while mostly immature birds, con- 

 tain perhaps five per cent, of birds in adult plumage. In the latter part of August 

 small family flocks of young and old birds are often to be seen flying south along 

 the beach. Thus on August 20, 1918, one adult and two dusky young flew by; 

 later a flock of four adults and seven dark young; later six adults, one with a black 

 tip to the tail, followed by a group of dark young. It is interesting to note that 



1 On page 20 of the original Memoir I have referred to young herring. Ahhough the 

 latter are sometimes found, the sand-lance is the important small fish in summer. 



