AO MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



23 [60] Larus Philadelphia (Ord). 



Bonaparte's Gull. 



Common transient and occasional winter visitor. March 10 to June 3 ; July 

 27 to December 7 ; January and February. 



One was seen on February 18, 1913, in Salem Harbor by Mrs. Edmund 

 Bridge. A flock of about fifty was seen by Mr. Freeman B. Currier on Decem- 

 ber 21, 1918, and January 15 and 19, 1919, at Newburyport near the mouth of the 

 Merrimac River. Tiiey were studied with a 22-power telescope at a distance of 

 a hundred yards and fully identified. This was an unusually mild winter and 

 the birds were common near Boston. 



The Bonaparte's Gull appears to change to winter plumage and discard its 

 black hood earlier in the summer than does the Laughing Gull, for black-headed 

 birds are rarely to be seen on the Essex County coast at that season. Mrs. Bridge 

 records one with a black hood at Ipswich Beach on August 18, 1907. 



On May 28, 1905, I found a flock of twenty-five of these birds just inside the 

 mouth of the Merrimac River ; of these about a third had black hoods, a third were 

 mottled, and a third were in winter plumage with white heads. Their small size 

 and the entirely different appearance of the wing distinguish the Bonaparte's Gull 

 from the Laughing Gull, though they resemble each other in the adult nuptial 

 stage by the presence of the black hood alone. The black border of the wing 

 both in front and behind, — the mourning border as I am apt to think of it, — is 

 very distinctive of the Bonaparte's Gull, and serves to distinguish it in the imma- 

 ture and winter plumage from the same plumage in the Kittiwake. The orange- 

 red legs and feet of the adult and the flesh-colored ones in the immature also serve 

 to distinguish the Bonaparte's from the Kittiwake which has black legs and feet. 



24 [63] Gelochelidon nilotica (Linn.). 



Gull-billed Tern ; Marsh Tern. 



Accidental visitor from the South. 



The single record remains unique as before. 



