.--At Woodlawn, Maryland, a piedmont location just west of Balti- more, a dammed stream forms a pond that from early October to early April is commonly frequented in the daytime by small numbers of Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) and by Ring-billed Gulls (L. delawarensis) in numbers that at times exceed 100. In late afternoon the birds fly off toward Baltimore harbor or Chesa- peake Bay, to return the next morning. At this pond, from 28 February through 21 March 1969, and from 8 to 23 March 1970 I regularly found two Herring Gulls that plainly were paired, and on 27 January 19}0 two Ring-billed Gulls that seemed to be either paired or courting. Herring Gull.--In both 1969 and 1970 the male Herring Gull had the tinged bill of a third-year bird (Poor, Auk, 63: 149,' 1946) and the female had a fully adult bill. The birds were sexable by the male's greater size and, in 1969 especially, by the female's behavior. The signs of paired status included: idling or fishing, they asso- ciated almost continuously; they sometimes flew from place to place together, and once I saw them leave the pond together; repeatedly, when one called the other flew to it; they sometimes called and bowed together. Also, once in 1969 the female went to the male and they touched bills, and once in 1970 something similar occurred. In 1969 I watched the paired birds for 9 hours on 11 days. Outstandingly, on 17 March the female once walked directly toward the male in the horizontal posture that Tinbergen (The Herring Gull's world, London, Collins, 1953: pp. 105-107) de- scribes and pictures as that of a female "proposing," and she once nibbled the male's neck and the two then "sparred" with their bills in what seemed to be the courtship- feeding prelude described by Tinbergen (op. cit., pp. 51, 106), although no feeding occurred. On 20 March the female once walked a short arc beside the male in the "proposing" posture. I watched the 1970 pair for 4 hours on 8 days. Curiously, 17 March again was the day of most striking activity. The male once uttered cries as the female alighted beside him and the two then gave a number of upward tosses of the head. A bit later the male called and the female alighted directly in front of him and they came close to touching bills. Still later they called steadily, in almost regular alternation, for more than a minute, and again called briefly in unison. Once the male chased a first-winter bird that settled on the water between him and the female, and once the female chased away a subadult that came near them. On Skokholm, Wales, Fisher and Lockley state (Sea-Birds, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1954, p. 231), Herring Gulls may begin pairing "even before the new year." On the Netherlands North Sea coast they begin to concentrate around their breeding places in February and "weeks before their first visit to the dunes they begin to form pairs" (Tinbergen, op. cit., 98). In Scotland "some display has been noted in the wintering places in the Tay estuary quite away from the nesting areas" (Boase, Brit. Birds, 45: 320, 1952). Although pairing by 28 February and at a distance from a breeding ground is therefore not surprising, I have been able to find no published American observation of the sort. The similar performances I witnessed by similar birds at the same little pond at the same period in successive years suggest that these birds were the same individuals and that the "third-year" bill may be retained beyond that age. William H. Drury, Jr., comments (pers. comm.) that in his work with Herring Gulls in Massachusetts "we have not found any [banded ones] in 'third-year plumage' that were older than three years. I don't know whether anyone else has, but I would not be surprised to find that it happened. My intuitive response is that these gulls were the same birds in the two consecutive years but that the age is an open question." Ring-billed Gull.--On 27 January 1970 three adult Ring-billed Gulls were idling on the ice-covered pond, some yards apart. After a while one walked a circle around another, at a distance of 2 yards or so. I did not notice its posture then, but imme- diately afterward it was moving about with body horizontal, head withdrawn and bill horizontal, and at first with its shoulders hunched. It was giving rather weak calls that sounded like "hooe." After many seconds of this, it and one of the others were side by side and the other took the same posture. Then the two gripped bills and fluttered for a fraction of a second; upon separating, one of them gave a number of cries with upward tosses of the head. Here I lost track of individual identities, but now for 2 minutes one of the three gulls followed another about, keeping the horizontal posture and at intervals giving "quea" cries, some of which were accom panled by an upward toss of the head, some by a slight forward thrust of the slightly lowered bill, some by no head action. Then it turned away from the bird it had been pursuing, for 3 minutes more walked about widely in the horizontal posture s then took wing and both of the others followed suit and all disappeared. The resemblance of this behavior to "proposing" by a female Herring Gull suggests that it too was courtship. No literature available to me touches on the subject, but William E. Southern, who is studying the Ring-bill on Lake Michigan, states (pers. comm.) that the courtship behavior of the two species is indeed similar. Ring-billed Gulls were present at Woodlawn into early April, but on no other occasion did I see any indication of courtship or of paired status.HERw3/4 BR^CXmL, 2620 Poplar Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21207. Accepted I Sep. 70.