ANNOTATED LIST OF THE BIRDS 73 



Long Island. Common transient, uncommon in winter, 

 casual in summer; August 8 to May 29, 1921, Jones Beach (Gris- 

 com and J. M. Johnson). 



OHIENT. Rare transient, irregular in summer. 

 MASTIC. Fairly common transient; a few birds winter; 

 has arrived as early as August 8, 1915. 



LONG BEACH. Common transient, a few individuals usually 

 wintering and summering, August 24, 1919 (M. S. Crosby) to 

 May 28, 1911 (Griscom). 

 New York State. 



BRONX REGION. One positive record; February 9, 1922 

 on the Sound with Herring Gulls (L. N. Nichols). 

 New Jersey. Frequently observed on Newark Bay near 

 Elizabethport from August 2, 1922 to May 1, 1922 (Urner). No 

 reliable records elsewhere in our area. 



LAUGHING GULL (Larus atricilla) Fig. 2 

 The Laughing Gull is easily identified in any plumage at 

 great distances by its small size and darker mantle and wings. 

 It has had a chequered career in this vicinity. Formerly a 

 common summer resident on Long Island, it rapidly decreased 

 due to persecution for the millinery trade, and is not posi- 

 tively known to have nested since 1888 (Butcher). Twenty 

 years ago it was a very rare spring transient, the immature 

 birds regularly noted in July, August and September. In 

 the past ten years it has been steadily increasing in a most 

 gratifying way, is now a regular spring and common fall 

 transient, and there is good reason to hope that it will be 

 found nesting on Great South Bay in the near future. The 

 fall of 1921 witnessed a great flight of these beautiful birds. 

 For the first time in the memory of the present generation it 

 was common in the harbor and the lower Hudson, a familiar 

 sight from ferries and piers, and wandered up the river as 

 far as Dyckman Street. Normally departing in early October 

 it lingered a month later and was last seen November 6 

 in Newark Bay by Mr. Charles A. Urner. There was an even 

 bigger flight in the fall of 1922. Both seasons it appeared in 

 numbers up the Hudson River in Haverstraw Bay. 



