300 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



inches 1 line. Summer plumage, with the mantle and wings pearl 

 grey. The first 6 quills black towards their ends, that color extend- 

 ing to the base of the first, but forming merely a narrow bar on the 

 6th ; the first and second have a long white space near their tips ', 

 the others, the lesser quills and scapulars, are conspicuously termi- 

 nated with white. Shafts of the two or three exterior quills black. 

 Head, neck, shoulders, rump, tail, and whole under plumage, white. 

 Bill considerably compressed, wax-yellow, tipped with bright yellow. 

 Legs blackish -grey, blotched with yellow on the webs. Wings 2 

 inches longer than the tail ; thighs bare for an inch. 



RING-BILLED MEW GULL. 



* (Larus zonorhynchus, Richard. North. Zool. ii. p. 421.) 



Sp. Charact. — Commissure of the stout ringed bill rather longer 

 than the tarsus, which measures 2^ inches ; ends of the quills and 

 their shafts blackish ; a short white space on the two exterior 

 ones. 



This Gull, which breeds in considerable numbers in 

 swampy places on the banks of the Saskatchewan, bears a 

 close resemblance to L. canus. Its plumage is the same, 

 except that the white spaces near the ends of the first and 

 second quill feathers are one half shorter, and in some speci- 

 mens there is none at all on the second. It differs how- 

 ever, remarkably in the size of the bill, which approaches 

 that of L. argentatoides, being much wider at the base, 

 more rounded on the ridge, and stronger every way than 

 that of Ij. canus : it has a conspicuous salient angle be- 

 neath, and is of a dutch-orange color, with a blackish ring 

 near its tip. The w^ings are 2 inches longer than the tail. 

 It is smaller than L. ai-gentatoides of Bonaparte, and its 

 nostrils are shaped like those of L. canus. 



Length 22 inches ; the wing 15 inches 3 lines ; of the bill from 

 above, 1 inch 9 lines : tarsus 2 inches 5 lines. A second male speci- 



