355
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1897.
Dec. 11
(No 2)
  Practically all the Gulls were L. a. smithsonianus
but there were also three or four young and one fine
adult of L. marinus and a single young L. leucopterus.
I made quite certain that the flock contained no
Kittiwake or Ring-billed Gulls.
  The L. leucopterus, as I could distinctly see by the
aid of my glass, was a bird of the year lacking all
trace of the [delete][?][/delete] bluish on the mantle and having the primaries
(which it was obliging enough to display by twice raising &
slowly opening its wings) of a nearly uniform brownish
white. In its general coloring it closely resembled the 
specimen taken on the Back Bay, Boston, by the
Mssrs. Bangs and recorded in the Nutall Bulletin
(VI, 1881, p. 124). It looked somewhat smaller than
any of the Herring Gulls which were swimming close
around it and its attitudes and movements appeared
to me more easy and graceful. Its coloring was
so much lighter than that of the young Herring Gulls
that it attracted my attention the moment [delete]that[/delete] it
came within the field of my glass.
  Of course in a way the identification of this birds is
open to some doubt inasmuch a it is not certain
that we are as yet able to discriminate correctly
between the young of L. leucopterus and L. kumlieni
or to be more definite, that many if not indeed all
of the New-England-shot specimens which had
been referred to the former may not really belong
to the latter species. This, however, must remain [delete][for][/delete] for
the present, [delete][remain][/delete] an open question.