646 LARUS BREVIROSTRIS, RED-LEGGED KITTIWAKE. 



tbe tail, black. The outer four primaries with their outer webs, outer half of inner 

 webs, and tips for some distauce, black, the rest of tbe feathers pearly white. Tips 

 only of the iifth and sixth black, their extreme apices with a white speck. 



Blmensio)is. — Winj^, 12.25; bill above, 1.40 to l.oO ; along rictus, 2.10; height at base, 

 0.59 ; at angle, 0.40 ; tarsus, l.:50 ; middle toe and claw, l.SO. 



Regarding so long and well kuowu a species as the present, any further remarks upon 

 its characters and relationships are unnecessary. Its principal synonyms are given in 

 the preceding list. The relationships of the other North American species will be 

 found discussed under their respective heads. 



Larus tridactyltts var. kotzebui, (J5/?.) Coues. 



(?) litssu irachyrhyncha, Bruch, J. f. O. 1853, 103, sp. 31. 



Eissa nivea, Bkucii, J. f. O. 1855, 285, sp. 36 (excl. syn.). Not Larus niveus, Pall. 



Rissa lotzehni, Bp., Consp. Av. ii, 1856, 226.— Bp., Compt. Rend. 1856, 771.— Coues, 



Pr. A. N. S. Phffa. 1862, 305.— Cass., Pr. A. N. S. Phila. 1862, 325.— Elliot, 



B. N. A. pi. 54. 

 " Eissa hrcvirostris, Brandt," Lawr., B. N. A. 1858, 855, ^artim. Sed non Braudtii, qua; 



species sequeus. 

 Larus tridactylus var. Icoizebui, Coues, Key, 1872, 314 (see Coues, Pr. Phila. Acad. 1869, 



207, foot-uote). — Coues, Elliot's Prybilov Islands, 1874, Ai>p. p. — . 



Diag. Eissa; tridactylm simillimus ; noiinisi halluce magis explivato differt. 

 Hal). — The North Paciiic, American and Asiatic. 



There is no occasion to describe this form, because it is exactly the same as 72. tri- 

 daciijJa, except in the singular character given in the diagnosis. 



I have now a great number ( f specimens, enabling me to speak confidently of the bird. 

 A j)art of the Kittiwakes from the North Pacific are not distinguished in any way 

 from the common North Atlantic bird. Others have the hind toe as perfectly formed 

 and projiortionally as lai'ge as it is in any species of Larus! And there is a gradation 

 up to this feature. 



A specimen (No. 50197, September, 1867, Plover Bay) exhibits the extreme of this 

 variation. The hallux is two- tenths of an inch long, and bears a perfect claw. In fact 

 this bird is not '^ Eissa," but Larus, in respect of its feet. 



It is certainly a singular fact, that while the Atlantic bird is not known to vary in 

 this lespect, the race inhabiting the North Pac'fic should exhibit the anomaly. 



No comparison of this form with the succeeding species is required. 



Synonymy. — In the next article some points will be discussed that have a bearing here 

 also. I have now only to speak of the above-cited names. E. brachyrhyncha, Bruch, 

 1853, is to me doubttul ; 1 tcarcely know where to locate it ; probably it comes here, 

 rather than under the next head. Bruch's Eissa nivea (of 1855) must fall here, because 

 he says that it has the hind toe better developed ; whereas it is his other species whereof 

 he says "feet coral-red" (i. e. hrerirosfris). His sjiecies 36 therefore being thus liotzehni, 

 he is wrong in adducing " bracJiyrhyncha Gould" as a synonym. Still, if reference to 

 authors is allowed to override description as an iudex, E. nivea Bruch is the next species. 

 E. kotzebui Bonaparte is diagnosticated much as above ; no questions have arisen about 

 it ; Cassiu and I have used it in precisely its author's acceptation. The "it", brevirostris 

 Brandt" of Lawrence is partly this species, partly the succeediijg, as evident from his 

 brief diagnosis ("hind toe better formed "=; /,'o/^<'6« ( ; "feet aonxX-Vfiii" = brcvirosiris). 

 But E. brevirostris Brandt is really the next species. 1 rather think that almost all, if 

 not all, the various Eissa synonyms really go to the next species, and that Bonaparte 

 alone, in his E. kotzebui, has exactly hit off the bird I am now defining ; at any rate no 

 de8crii>tion that speaks of red or yelLw legs — no matter what is said of the hind toe — 

 can come here. 



It will thus be seen that the views I printed in 1862, with an expressed doubt as to 

 their entire accuracy, meet with confirmation ; the only modification I offer is not be- 

 lieving in the permanent distinction of kotzebui and tridactyla, examination of many 

 specimens having shown that but one of the supposed and accredited differences has 

 any special significance, and that this one is inconstant. 



LAKUS (EISSA) BREVIKOSTKIS, (Brandt) Coues. 

 Red-legged Kittiwuke. 



{!) Eissa nivea, Gray, Gen. of B. 1849, iii (sed non Larus niveus. Pall.). — Bp., Compt. 

 Rend, xlii, 1856, 771. — Lawr., B. N. A. 1858, 855 (descriptionem Lari hrachrf- 

 rhynelii Gouldii transcripta est). — Elliot, Birds N. Am. pi. 54. 



Larus braehyrhynchus, Gould, Pr. Zool. Soc. July, 1843, 106. — Gould, Zool. Voy. 

 Sulphur, 50, 1)1. 34. (Not of Richardson.) 



