468 GeneralNotes. •ul•y

GENERAL NOTES. Franl•lin's Gull at Philadelphia--A Correction.--In ' The Auk' for January,1912, p. 99, I recordedan immatureGull taken at Philadelphiaas a Franklin's Gull (Larus franklini) mainly on account of the small size of the bill. Dr. Jonathan Dwight, who has studied so carefully all the plum- agesof thesebirds, recently examined this specimenand pronouncesit an unquestionedLaughing Gull (L. atricilla), basinghis decisionon the definite differencesin the juvenal plumagesof this and the Franklin's Gull and the fact that the size of the bill in these young birds provesunreliable as a spe- cific character. I hasten to acquiescein his identification and to cancelthe record of Franklin's Gull as a Pennsylvania bird.--WxT•Eg S'ro•E, Academyof Natural Sciencesof Philadelphia. Gulls and Terns Feeding on the Seventeen-Year Cicada.--In the summer of 1923 considerable numbers of the seventeen-year cicada (Tibicina septendecim)emerged from the ground in Plymouth and Barn- stable Counties,Mass., and attacked the trees. On June 26 Mr. Wilfred Wheeler, manager of the CoonamessettRanch at Hatchville, Falmouth, Barnstable County, notified the Division of Ornithology that "Mackerel Gulls" were coming there and eating seventeen-yearcicadas. On July 2 he wrote that on that morninghe watcheda flock of over 200 Gulls feeding on the cicadasand that they caught the insectsin the air, sometimesvery high and sometimesquite low near the ground. Mr. John A. Farley was dispatchedto investigate this statement, and the followingis extracted from his report: "Laughing Gulls and Common Terns were seen devouring seventeen-yearcicadas this year at the out- breaksin Falmouth, Mashpeeand Barnstable. Mr. Wilfred Wheeler fur- nishesan interestingstatement. He saysthe 'peak' of the numbersof the locustswas apparentlyJuly 2. On that day LaughingGulls cameclose down over the officeof the CoonamessettCompany, and were seen within two or three rods to catch the imagoes of the cicadas on the wing. The imagoesflew freely fromone tree to another,or fromone clump of treesto another--quite long distancessometimes. On the special occasionre- ferred to the cicadaswere very abundantclose by the office,having flown intoan oaktree from the nearestwoods some distance •vay. Therewere a great many of them in the trees,and numbersof them droppeddown into the grassbeneath. This abundanceattracted the Gulls, whichwere seento catchthe cicadasvery closeat hand. They wereseen also daily in w•rious other placesto catch cicadason the wing. Besidesthe cicadasthat took long flights,the Gulls also caught those that flew only from one tree to another,or fromone branch to another. They pickedthem off deftly f•om the leavesthemselves, and even alighted for a secondon the twigs or bra.nches,the better to do this. Mr. Wheelerstates that on one occasion Vol.1924: XLI] ] GeneralNo•s. 469 he saw a Gull even alight on the groundto eat theseinsects, but this was only for a minute. It waswhere the insectswere very numerous,in a little valley where sometimesgreat numbers of Gulls, attracted by the abun- danceof their prey, gathered,and flew closeto the groundand low growth. Accordingto Mr. Wheeler,there seemedto be intervalsbetween the feeding of the Gulls,when the satedbirds flew high up or over CoonamessettPond. At the time when the cicadas were most numerous the Gulls flew at three levels,close to the grass,at a mediumheight, and high up." "Having beeninformed that great numbersof Gulls and Terns ("Mack- erel Gulls") were destroyingcicadas at Mararista, Falmouth Heights, I went there on the afternoonof July 4. The cicadaswere practically every- wherein the woodsand undevelopedlots, but weremost abundant in cer- tain spots. The Gullsfrequented these places intermittently, coming back to themrepeatedly. Therewere a greatmany LaughingGulls; their num- bers exceededthose of the Terns. They hoveredin a screamingthrong overthe low growth,close to the foliageand sometimesalighted verybriefly thereon. Yet out of the wholenumber thus seenrepeatedly to hover low down, I did not see over two Laughing Gulls with anything in their bills. Probablythe reasonfor thisis that they swallowedtheir catchimmediately, and unlike the Terns never camevery near me." "The CommonTern and the RoseateTern were identifiedamong the 'Mackerel Gulls.' The Terns were quite fearlessand dashedinto the low growth within a few yards of me, and the objectstaken in their bills were the sizeand shapeof the seventeen-yearcicada; also they were darting down into bushes which were much infested with cicadas. The Terns flew offwith their preyplainly held in the bill. They wentin the samedirection always,and the inferencewas that they were carryingfood to their young on sand-barsor islets in the tidal arm of salt water not far away. The Terns were seenalso to carry small fish (?) in their bills in the samedirec- tion." "On July 5 on a sand-barfrequented by Terns and Gulls somedistance away from the infestedspots, I found many remainsof cicadas,heads and wingsattached left intact, but everythingelse was gone." "Mr. Henry Peters, tree warden of Mashpee,told me that the same sceneshad been witnessedin Mashpee. Cicadasseemed to be most abun- dant in the swalesand little valleys,and in theseplaces birds gathered very abundantly." Mr. WilliamF. Jenkins,of WestBarnstable, reported that Gullswere doingsimlqar work in Santuit,and anotherreport came in to the effectthat Gullswere taking the cicadason the wingat Seven-milePond. Mr. Wilfred Wheelerreported that Robins,Bluebirds and ChippingSparrows were eat- ing the insects,and Mr. Farley sawa Robin in the act. Mr. R. It. Allen, Director of the Division of Plant Pest Control of the MassachusettsDepartment of Agriculture, who was at Coonamessett Ranch, Hatchville, for onehour on the afternoonof July 9, assertsthat the Gullswere hovering over the infestedtrees in the swaleor little valleywhich 470 •eneralNotes. [•ulyAuk has been mentionedalready. He found on the ground there, heads of cicadas,with wings attached, which apparently were the inedible parts of the insect which the Gulls had caught. In a letter receivedon August24 from Mr. Allan Keniston,superinten- dent of the Heath Hen Reservationon Martha's Vineyard,he assertedthat he was on Muskeget Island at the time of the outbreak of the seventeen- year cicadaon Cape Cod, and that the LaughingGulls there were feeding their young on that insect. On further inquiry he said that when the young were frightened,they threw up "mashedcicadas." He reported that he saw about a dozenyoung regurgitate the remainsof theseinsects, and around the spotswhere the young were congregatednumerous parts of the cicadas,as wings, etc. were scattered on the ground. Correspondencewith the United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology,elicited from Dr. J. A. Ityslop, entomologistin charge,the fact that in BarnstableCounty (CapeCod) the seventeen-year cicada appearedthis year in Sandwich, Mashpee, Falmouth, Barnstable and Yarmouth, with a few other recordsfrom the border line betweenthe townships of Truro and Wellfleet. The most intense broods were found along the shore of Cape Cod from Falmouth to Yarmouth, with heavy broodson the east sideof BuzzardsBay in Bourne and Sandwich. So far as canbe learnedthere was no outbreakof the seventeen-yearcicada south of Cape Cod on Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard or any of the Elizabeth Islands. Thereforeif LaughingGulls at Muskegetfed their youngon these insects,they musthave carriedthe foodat leasttwenty-one miles from the Cape Cod region,for it is about that distancefrom MuskegetIsland to the nearestcolony. They must have carried quantitiesof the insectsin their gulletsand then regurgitatedthem into the mouthsof the young. Laugh- ing Gulls and the CommonTerns are well known to feed largely on insects at certaintimes of the year.--EDward•Howe FORB•SS.q,Boston, Mass. First Ontario Record for Fulmarus g. glacialis.--To add a new spe- cies to your own local list is always a very pleasant experiencebut to be able to make an addition to a provincial or state list is somethingthat the average observertakes the greatest delight in doing. Consequentlyit givesme the greatest pleasure to be able to add the Fuhnar (Fulmarus g. glacial•s)to. the avi-fauna of Ontario. Not only is this the first record for the provincebut it is alsoprobably the only inland recordfor all of North America. The bird, a singleindividual, was taken on May 3, 1924, near Arnprior at the mouth of the Madawaska River where it empties into Lac des Chats an expansionof the Ottawa. As is usually the casewith the speciesit wasremarkably tame and its capturewas easily effected by means of an ordinary fishing line with an enticing minnow as bait. Due to the fact that the bird had probablybeen feeding in freshwater for sonhetime the musky odor, characteristicof the family, was almost entirely absent and there was no sign of the oil usually emitted by the specieswhen cap- tured. Arnprior is about forty milesnorth-west of the city of Ottawa and