140 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ber 7 ; South Carolina, Charleston, September 26 ; Florida, Fernan- 

 dina, September 16; Mississippi, Bay St. Louis, October 10; Califor- 

 nia, Los Angeles County, September 17. Late dates of departure : 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, Anticosti Island, September 18; Massachu- 

 setts, Woods Hole, November 17; North Dakota, Harrisburg, Octo- 

 ber 17 ; Colorado, Denver, November 12 ; Utah, Provo, November 30. 



Casual reconfo.— Accidental in Hawaiian Islands (one taken in 

 winter 1901) and in Bermuda (January 1, 1849). 



Egg dates. — North Dakota : Forty-eight records, May 9 to June 22 ; 

 twenty-four records, May 31 to June 15. Saskatchewan and Mani- 

 toba: Seventeen records, June 4 to 23. Quebec Labrador: Ten 

 records, June 20 to 30. 



LARUS BRACHYRHYNCHUS Richardson. 

 SHOBT-BILLED GULL. 



'.< HABITS. 



The North American counterpart of the common mew gull of 

 Europe is so closely related to it that many ornithologists question 

 the specific distinction of the two species. The characters on which 

 they are separated are very slight and not very constant ; there is so 

 much individual variation in both forms that they seem to intergrade 

 and may yet be proven to be no more than subspecies. The short- 

 billed gull is a widely distributed and common species throughout 

 the whole of the interior of Alaska and the northern portions of the 

 northwest territories. It is a marsh-loving species and frequents all 

 the flat marshy country .of the coast and interior, as well as much of 

 the wooded region in the vicinity of lakes, ponds, and streams. 



Spring. — Mr. Lucien M. Turner (1886) says : 



The short-billed gull arrives at St. Michael according to the openness of 

 the season. It comes in few numbers as soon as large cracks are made in the 

 ice. This may be early as the 1st of May or as late as the 25th. The season 

 of 1874 was unusually open. Upon our arrival at St. Michael, on May 25, hun- 

 dreds of these gulls were flying over the bay. In the course of a few days they 

 became less, so that by the middle of June only few pairs were seen. In later 

 years they were not abundant at any time, though the breaking up of the ice 

 was accompanied with visits of numbers of them. 



Turner's failure to note them after the middle of June was doubt- 

 less due to their being busy with family duties. Early in June they 

 forsake the outer bays and scatter over the tundra where they con- 

 struct their nests. Often their breeding places are several miles back 

 from the coast, which they visit less frequently until after the young 

 are on the wing. 



