Vol. XIX 

 1902 



] General Notes. 283 



winter, twenty-eight specimens of the Snowy Owl, and enclosed a 

 most artistic picture of fourteen of these striking birds. He 

 states that they first appeared late in November, 190 1, and that 

 they had almost completely destroyed the quail and partridges in 

 that section ; the quail having been quite abundant before the inroad 

 of the owls. One specimen, seen flying close to the ground, sud- 

 denly stooped and captured a rabbit. Mr. Kress informs me 

 that at least fifty specimens were killed in the vicinity of Elk 

 Rapids. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The American and European Herring Gulls. — In 1S62, the late Dr. 

 Coues separated the American Herring Gull as specifically distinct from 

 the European Herring Gull, under the name Lams srnitksouianus, on the 

 basis of slight differences in general size, and in the size and form of the 

 bill, but mainl}' on the small amount of white at the tips of the primaries. 

 Later an attempt was made to show that these alleged differences were 

 due to age {cf. Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., II, pp. 194-196, April, 1S71). 

 As, however, Herring Gulls unquestionably referable to the Old World 

 form have proved to be of more or less frequent occurrence in this 

 country, together with many intermediates, both forms of the Herring 

 Gull have been given a place in the A. O. U. Check-List, -standing, 

 respectively, as Larus argcntatiis and Lartis argentatus smithsouiaHus. 

 I have, however, never been convinced that my exposition of the case in 

 1S71 was not thoroughly sound. 



Although Lartis sinitksoniauus, either as a species or subspecies, appears 

 to have never received any recognition abroad, it was not again chal- 

 lenged by American writers till 1S9S and later, when Mr. O. W. Knight, 

 after examination of a great number of adult American Herring Gulls 

 shot at Portland, Maine, emphatically claimed the "non-existence of the 

 so-called subspecies L. a. smiiksonianus " {c/. Auk, XVII, Jan. 1900, pp. 63, 

 64). A vear later Dr. Dwight, on wholly, different material, reached 

 practically the same conclusion in his paper on 'The Sequence of Moults 

 and Plumages of the Larids; ' (Auk, XVIII, Jan. 1901, pp. 49-62). In 

 referring to the white areas at the tip of the first primary in the American 

 Herring Gull, and to the wide range of variation in these markings, 

 which vary from two small distinct white areas to a single large apical 

 white spot, he asks "Is the European bird always marked by one white 

 area?" Owing to the absence of large series of European specimens in 



