12 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



There has been no marked change in the last fifteen years in the numbers of 

 the loons, grebes, and auks. A fluctuating number of these birds visits the coast 

 in winter. Holbcell's Grebe, for example, uncommon in most years, may suddenly 

 become abundant. This was the case in March, 1912, when I counted seventy- 

 five of these birds off Gloucester. It has been said that the freezing-up of the 

 inland waters drives this bird to the sea, but in the exceptionally severe winter of 

 191 7-18 there was no increase in the numbers of this grebe on our coast. On the 

 same day in 1912 that I found so many Holbcell's Grebes, I found also a very 

 large number of Dovekies, — several thousand of this arctic bird. As these birds 

 do not frequent fresh water it is evident that another explanation than that for 

 the grebe must be found. The Dovekie is more uncertain and variable in num- 

 bers than any other bird of these groups and it has been supposed that the appear- 

 ance of large numbers of them on the coast is due to storms driving them in 

 from the sea. 



Among the gulls, the increase in numbers of the Herring Gull, although 

 doubtless partly actual, is also partly apparent, due to the greater protection on 

 the reservations. The case of the white-winged gulls, — Glaucous, Iceland, and 

 Kumlien's Gulls, — is, however, of great interest. When the original Memoir 

 was published, there had been no record of the last-named bird and only four for 

 the Glaucous and one for the Iceland Gull in a period of fifty years. I, myself, 

 had never seen any of these gulls. Since then the records have increased to such 

 an extent that one and often several of each species are now reported every winter, 

 and I have become familiar with all three. That there has been an actual increase 

 of these birds on our coast coincident with the increase of Herring and other 

 gulls, due to protection, is doubtless true, but the increase, although partly real is, 

 I believe, largely only apparent and for the reasons already given. Fifteen years 

 and more ago it is doubtful, as I have said, whether an ornithologist would have 

 dared to report a white-winged gull on our coast without the bird in hand. Fur- 

 thermore he would have doubted the possibility of making a sure identification 

 without the gun. Nowadays with opportunities to study gulls with strong 

 prismatic glasses within half a gun-shot distance, the careful observer may feel 

 almost as sure of his identification as if the bird were dead in his hand. 



In the case of the Laughing Gull there has been an actual increase as the 

 bird has markedly increased in numbers in the protected breeding colonies of 

 Muskeget on the south and Western Egg Rock on the Maine coast. The terns, 

 released from the cruel tyranny of fashion, had already begun to increase fifteen 

 years ago, and the last fifteen years have added strikingly to their numbers. In 

 1905, 1 recorded that I had never seen a Roseate Tern on the Essex County coast. 

 Now they are actually abundant during the latter part of the summer at Ipswich 



