ARCTIC JAGER. 317 



ARCTIC JAGER. 



(Lestris parasitica, Temji. ii. p. 796? Richard. North. Zool. ii. p. 

 430. L. Buffonii, Bonap. Synops. No. 306.? The Arctic Bird, 

 Edwards, pi. 148 ?) 



Sp. Gkaract. — Bill about 1^ inches measured from the front, 

 straight and notched ; middle tail feathers gradually terminating 

 in long, slender, sub-linear, acute points ; tarsus 1^ inches long, 

 slightly rough, yellowish. — ^dult brown, neck and breast straw 

 yellow, below white. Young wholly brownish. 



This species inhabits the Arctic sea coasts of America 

 and Europe in the summer, migrating to more temperate 

 parts in winter, particularly the young, which are sometimes 

 seen on the coast of the United States. They abound in 

 the remote and desolate region of Melville Peninsula, the 

 North Georgian Islands, Baffin's Bay, and Spitzbergen. In 

 its habits and manners it resembles the preceding species. 



The length of this kind is about 15 inches, (excluding the long 

 central tail feathers ;) these long feathers are 12 inches 3 lines ; bill 

 from above, 1 inch 1 or 2 lines ; tarsus 1^ inches. Mult, with the 

 crown, nape, quills and tail, pitch black. Back, scapulars, and lesser 

 wing coverts, blackish-brown, with a tinge of grey. Shafts of the 

 tail and quills whitish, except on their tips. Kead beneath the level 

 of the eye, neck above and below, and breast, straw yellow. Ante- 

 rior part of the belly whitish; posterior parts, flanks and under tail 

 coverts brownish-grey. Interior of the wing blackish-grey. Bill 

 livid; its tip, the knee joints and feet, blackish. Tarsus largely 

 blotched with yellow. Wings longer than the lateral tail feathers. 

 The long tail feathers project half a foot beyond the others. Tarsus 

 slender, reticulated behind with minute, conical, and rather acute 

 scales. 



27 



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