Vol. XXIX 

 1912 



J General Notes. 99 



tenderly remembered, and the hope is expressed that his health 

 will soon be restored. 



Mr. Witmer Stone was elected to succeed Dr. Allen as Editor 

 of The Auk.' 



The next meeting of the Union will be held in Cambridge, Mass., 

 the date to be determined later. 



Jno. H. Sage, 



Secretary. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The Laughing Gull at Marshfield, Massachusetts,— On May 30, 

 1911, while making a trip along the "South Shore," I observed at Marsh- 

 field a single Laughing Gull {Larus atricilla) sitting on the water a little 

 distance out. The black head and the solid black outer primaries showed 

 up very conspicuously, making identification sure. Also it was notice- 

 ably smaller than the Herring Gulls which were near it. This is, I believe, 

 a new record, not only for Marslifield, but also for Plymouth County, 

 of the Laughing Gull, as I have not been able to find any previous date. 



Again, on July 29, 1911, while Mr. J. Archibald Hagar, Mr. H. D. 

 Mitchell, and I were .sitting on the cliff at the mouth of the North River, 

 we saw four black-headed gulls fly up into the mouth of the river. We 

 watched them for some time and identified them plainly as Laughing Gulls. 



The next day (the .30th), we three, accompanied by Mr. J. C. Hagar, 

 in a boat on the South River, near the mouth, saw a pair of these same 

 gulls on the flats, so near that we could see the white eye-ring and the 

 reddish bill. They were very handsome birds and seemed to be much 

 smaller than the Herring Gulls which were around them. 



It is to be hoped, and these records may possibly indicate that the Laugh- 

 ing Gull is extending its range a little farther northward in Massachusetts. — 

 Harold L. Barrett, Jamaica Plain, Mass. 



Franklin's Gull (Larus franklini) at Philadelphia. — Mr. PhiUp 



Laurent recently submitted to me for identification a gull recently pre- 

 sented to him by Mr. Charles Liebeck who had shot it October 22, 1911, 

 on the Philadelphia "neck," the open swampy ground lying below the 

 built up portion of the city, above the juncture of the Delaware and 

 Schuylkill rivers. The bird was in immature (juvenal) plumage, largely 

 ashy gray, with a gray tail and black terminal band, almost a counterpart 

 of the Laughing Gull (L. atricilla) in similar plumage except for the smaller 



