316 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



that in a large colony of Herring Gulls that were breeding on a rocky 

 island on the southern coast, a small number had the bill marked with 

 a black ring. Presumably these may have been Ring-billed Gulls. 

 Frazar found a few moderate-sized colonies in the vicinity of Cape 

 Whittle, and refers to their frequently changing location owing to 

 their being so often disturbed. Three eggs was the largest number 

 he found in a nest. According to A. P. Low, these gulls nest at Lake 

 Mistassini and in the vicinity of Hamilton Inlet. Coues records 

 three young of the year shot at Henley Harbor, on August 21, 1860, 

 from a flock of gulls. The most northern record is of a young speci- 

 men taken by H. B. Bigelow at Port Manvers (lat. 57° N.) on Sep- 

 tember 6th. 



[Larus canus Linn. Mew Gull. — The following is from Audubon's Lab- 

 rador "Journal" under date of June 18, 1833. "John and Co. found an 

 island [near Little Mecattina] with upwards of two hundred nests of the 

 Larus canus, all with eggs, but not a young one hatched. The nests were 

 placed on the bare rock; formed of sea-weed, about six inches in diameter 

 within, and a foot without; some were much thicker and larger than others; 

 in many instances only a foot apart, in others a greater distance was found. 

 The eggs are much smaller than those of Larus marinus." Elliott Coues adds 

 the following note after Larus canus: "Common Gull. This record raises 

 an interesting question, which can hardly be settled satisfactorily. Larus 

 canus, the Common Gull of Europe, is given by various authors in Audubon's 

 time, besides himself, as a bird of the Atlantic Coast of North America, from 

 Labrador southward. But it is not known as such to ornithologists of the 

 present day. The American Ornithologists' Union catalogues L. canus as 

 merely a straggler in North America, with the query, ' accidental in Labrador? ' 

 In his Notes on the Ornithology of Labrador, in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 

 1861, p. 246, Dr. Coues gives L. delawarensis, the Ring-billed Gull, three 

 specimens of which he procured at Henley Harbor, Aug. 21, 1860. These 

 were birds of the year, and one of them, afterwards sent to England, was 

 identified by Mr. Howard Saunders as L. canus (P. Z. S., 1877, p. 178; Cat. 

 B. Brit. Mus., XXV, 1896, p. 281). This would seem to bear out Audubon's 

 Journal; but the ' Common American Gull' of his published works is the one 

 he calls L. zonorhynchus (i. e., L. delawarensis), and on p. 155 of the Birds of 

 Am., 8vo ed., he gives the very incident here narrated in his Journal, as per- 

 taining to the latter species. The probabilities are that, notwithstanding 

 Dr. Coues' finding of the supposed L. canus in Labrador, the whole Audubon- 

 ian record really belongs to L. delawarensis. — E. C."] 



Larus Philadelphia (Ord). 

 Bonaparte's Gull. 

 Common transient autumnal visitor in south. 



