696 



APPENDIX. 



[No. V 





the upper mandible much curved, the lower with a projecting angle underneath ; the 

 whole head covered with a sooty black, extending lower on the fore part of the neck 

 than on the back ; a small white spot round the eye ; the rest of the neck, and behind, 

 to the junction of the dark feathers of the back, white ; the back, belly, and sides, 

 white, suffused with a delicate rosy tinge ; the back wing coverts and scapulars, dark 

 ash colour ; of the primaries, the first has the outer web black, and the inner white, 

 with a black spot two inches from the end ; the second has the outer edge above ash 

 colour, with about two inches and a half towards the end, black ; the inner edge 

 white, with a large spot of black below, and the tip white ; the third and fourth are 

 nearly similar, but with less black below, and more ash-coloured above ; the fifth has 

 only a small spot of black across it, just above the white tip, and the sixth has no 

 black on it at all ; the secondaries and tertials are ash-coloured, tipped with white, the 

 former having more white than the latter ; the rump and upper tail coverts, which 

 are long, are white ; the tail ash-coloured, and short, the wings extending an inch and 

 a half beyond it ; the under tail coverts white ; the legs naked above the tarse; the tarse 

 an inch and three-quarters long ; the feet small, the centre toe, which is the longest, 

 not exceeding an inch and a half. The above description, except that it is more in 

 detail, agrees with the bird in Wilson, but his figure represents the primaries as 

 entirely black. M. Temminck, who refers to Wilson's bird as his L. Atricella, makes it 

 only fourteen inches long, and describes the primaries as black ; all the rest of his 

 description accords with the bird under examination. Pennant, who followed Catesby, 

 and both these writers are also quoted by M. Temminck, describes his L. Atricella as 

 eighteen inches long, and with the ends of the primaries black. There is little doubt 

 but that the Gull above-described by these American authorities is the L. Atricilla of 

 Linnaeus, and that our bird is referable to that species ; but it differs from that of 

 M. Temminck in its size, and the colour of the primary feathers. 



Larus Minutus. Little Gull. 



This species has not been hitherto recorded as a native of the New World ; it is 

 abundant in the northern dominions of Russia, both in Europe and Asia, and is occa- 

 sionally met with in the more southern parts of Europe. The specimen received, ex- 

 actly accords with M. Temminck's description of the young bird of the first year ; that 

 figured by Montagu in the Appendix of the Supplement to the Ornithological Dictio- 

 nary, though immature, is in a more advanced state of plumage, and was probably 

 killed in the winter, the one now before us having been obtained in the summer. 

 When mature, the Little Gull has its tail, and the primary feathers of its wings 

 white, not tinged with black as in its adolescent state ; the head becomes entirely 

 black, changing, in accordance with all the other known Gulls, whic haveh black 

 heads, to white in winter, resuming its dark feathers in the breeding season. 



