Sept., 1915 
ESTIMATED AVERAGE AGE OF THE HERRING GULL 
183 
If the plumages have not been correctly diagnosed the results will be thrown 
into error. This might be, if some first-year birds wore second-year plumage, 
which is unlikely, as if so there would be more intermediates between typical 
first- and second-year plumages in the fall than one actually does find. That 
some older birds wear second-year plumage, or second-year birds adult plumages 
seems more probable, but here the error should fall on one side as frequently as 
on the other and make no difference in the final results. 
It is possible that the counts are not sufficiently great to give the true pro- 
portions. Larger counts would of course be more reliable; but in the writer’s 
opinion those made are sufficiently large for approximate accuracy. 
If the habits of young and old vary so that any age favors the region where 
the observations were made more than the others, this would result in an erron- 
eous proportion being obtained. Familiarity with the Herring Gull in various 
parts of its winter range leads the writer to believe that young or old do some- 
what favor certain regions, but that the point where the observations were made 
is not such a region and that the counts are representative. 
SUMMARY 
In view of the difficulties of successfully estimating the age which a species 
of bird reaches in nature, an estimate based on the proportion of young to old is 
of interest. To repeat, such an estimate from two season’s observation of the 
Herring Gull gives average age attained by first-winter birds 6.0 years, second- 
winter birds 16.2 years, which implies a very heavy mortality between the first 
and second winters. Very likely the mortality continues heavy for another year 
or more and the normal age of the species is distinctly greater than the average 
age reached by second-winter birds, perhaps between 15 and 20 years, but this 
is mere guess-work. 
The writer considers the method here used one of the best, when available 
for determining age ; but results obtained with it by one observer in one locality 
in so short a time can not be greatly relied upon. 
New York City, June 11, 1915. 
A LATE NESTING RECORD FOR THE CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER* 
By HARRIET WILLIAMS MYERS 
F OR TWO seasons, at least, the same hole in a telephone pole that is daily 
passed by hundreds of street cars and automobiles, has been the home of a 
pair of California Woodpeckers ( Melanerpes formieivorus hairdi). There 
are plenty of oak and other trees nearby, but the birds seem to have a fondness 
for this pole which is near a group of poles on the corner of Pasadena Avenue 
and Avenue 62, Los Angeles, only a short distance from the Arroyo Seco. The 
hole is about thirty feet from the ground and is badly worked and split down. 
From a small round opening it has become an almost square one nearly twice as 
large as needed. 
While nesting birds have been recorded for every month in the year in Cali- 
fornia, I had thought July to be the latest for these woodpeckers, and was, there- 
fore, rather surprised to find that this nest-pole contained squealing young on 
September 11. It was after six o’clock that I passed near the corner on this day 
*Read at the A. O. U. Congress, San Francisco, May 18, 1915. 
