Larus argentatus vegae Palmén
Herring Gull
Larus argentatus Brünn. var. Vegae Palmén, in Nordenskiöld, Vega-Exped. Vetensk. Iakttag., 5, 1887, p. 370. (Type locality, Pidlin, northeastern Siberia.)
Larus vegae Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 8, 1896, p. 56 (Agrigan); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 68 (Marianne); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 20 (Marianas); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 70 (Marianas); idem, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 268 (Guam?).
Larus vegae Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 62 (Marianas).
Larus argentatus vegae Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 49 (Agrigan); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 196 (Agrigan); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 220 (Agrigan).
Geographic range.—Breeds in northern Siberia. Ranges east to Alaska and south to the Philippines and the China coast. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands—Agrihan.
Remarks.—The Herring Gull is ascribed to Micronesia on the basis of one bird obtained by Marche in January, 1889, at Agrihan in the northern Marianas and reported on by Oustalet (1896:56). The gull is considered a straggler to the northern Marianas from the northward. Stott (1947:525) observed a gull, which was thought to be this species or Larus ridibundus, at Lake Susupe, Saipan, in 1945.