1^2 DuTCHER on Long Island Birds. [April 



some included among North American birds, has no grounded claim lo be 

 so considered. I therefore omit the species, which I cannot recognize 

 as an inhabitant of this country until some conclusive evidence is 

 brought forward. The whole claim may be seen to rest upon an iden- 

 tification of Sabine's, who, in all probability, mistook Philadelphia for 

 niintitus.''''* 



It is included among the Laridte in the 'Water Birds of North America' 

 on the strength of the specimen so often referred to before, although the 

 reference is made in a hesitating manner: "The claim of this bird to be 

 included in the fauna of North America rests upon somewhat questionable 

 grounds. Richardson states that a single individual of this species was 

 obtained on Sir John Franklin's first expedition to the Arctic Regions."! 



It is omitted from the American Ornithologists' Union Check-List of 

 North American Birds, not even being placed in the 'Hypothetical List. 



I have the pleasure of recording the capture of an immature specimen 

 of this Gull. It was shot at Fire Island, Suffolk Co., New York (Long 

 Island), about September 15, 1S87. It was mounted by Mr. John Wallace 

 of New York City, into whose possession it came, and who very gener- 

 ously presented it to the American Museum of Natural History, Central 

 Park, New York City. It is No. 3156 in the mounted collection. Mr. 

 Eugene P. Bicknell first called my attention to this specimen, which he 

 had seen at Mr. Wallaces's, by kindly sending me a note stating, "You 

 might find it worth 3'our while to go to Wallaces's and look at a small 

 Gull from Long Island which is drying there. It is in young plumage and, 

 so far as I Can see, may be any of the small Gulls. Wallace claims it to 

 be different from anything he has seen." Subsequently I visited the shop 

 of Mr. Wallace and identified it as 7ninutus. Mr. Wallace informed me 

 that the specimen was sent to him in the flesh by Mr. W. W. Wilson, of 

 South Oyster Bay, Suftblk Co., N. Y. In response to an inquiry as to 

 how he obtained it, Mr. Wilson replied: "The small Gull you wrote 

 about was shot by Robert Powell, at Fire Island. It is the only one of 

 the kind I have ever had." To complete the chain of evidence I wrote to 

 Mr. Powell for information regarding its capture and he responded as 

 follows : "I was on the bay after Snipe, — that is my business, — and there 

 came twenty-five or thirty Gulls, ten or fifteen of them within shot. I 

 saw this Gull looked so much different, I shot him first. That is my 

 reason for shooting him, he looked so different." I may add that on very 

 many occasions, while shooting in company with the baymen and profes- 

 sional gunners on the South Side of Long Island, I have noted with 

 surprise their wonderful powers of observing the slightest difterences 

 among birds while they were yet flying. To the keen sight of Mr. Powell 

 we are indebted for the specimen which gives Lams minuttis a place in 

 the list of the North American birds. 



* Birds of the Northwest, 1874, pp. 655, 658. 



t The Water Birds of North America, by Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, Vol. II, 1884, 

 p. 265. 



