Larus a. smithsonianus. Lake Umbagog, Maine. Trying to fish. 1897. Long after sunset this evening a Herring Gull came fly- June 10. ing about our vessel (off Great Island) attracted by some schools of small fish which were ruffling the otherwise glassy surface of the Lake as if a light breeze had struck it. The Gull would make straight for one of these spots flying swift- ly a yard or two above the surface and plumping down heavily and, as it seemed to us, most clumsily into the middle of the school causing the fish to jump into the air by dozens all a- round him but never succeeding in catching any of them al- though he tried again and again. He would sometimes thrust his head and neck under water but never his body. I cannot understand how any bird could expect to catch fish in this m manner. A man might as well attempt, it apparently, by jumping into the water and thrusting down his head. 65