612 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



[Larus argentatiis .] Var. occidentalis Coues, Key N. Am. Birds, 1872, 312 (excl. 



syn. borealis Bfandt and cachinnans Pallas); Birds Northwest, 1874, 633 



(monogr.). 

 Larus argentatus . . . var. occidentalis Coues, Check List, 1873, no. 5476. 

 [Larus argentatus] c. occidentalis Coues, Birds Northwest, 1874, G26 (synonymy). 

 Larus argentatus occidentalis Coues, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., no. 7, 1877, 25 (Lower 



California) . 

 Larus argentatus var. occidentalis Henshaw, Rep. Orn. Spec. Expl. W. 100th 



Merid., 1876, 276 (Santa Cruz Island, breeding; San Francisco Harbor). 

 Larus fuscus (not of Linnaeus) Saunders, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1875, 158 



(Magdalena Bay, Lower California; crit.). 



LARUS ARGENTATUS Pontoppidan. 



HERRING GULL. 



Adults in summer (sexes alike). — Head, neck, rump, upper tail- 

 coverts, tail and entire under parts, including axillars and under 

 wing-coverts, immaculate pure white; back, scapulars, and wings 

 uniform pale gray (between pale and pallid neutral gray), the ter- 

 tialsj secondaries, and proximal primaries tipped with white (the 

 white about 25.5 mm. in extent on secondaries and not sharply 

 defined); outermost primary with outer web black, becoming gray- 

 ish basally, abruptly tipped with white, this rarely interrupted or 

 broken by a more or less distinct subterminal black bar; second 

 primary (from outside) abruptly tipped with white, the subterminal 

 portion black; third, fourth, and fifth primaries similar, but the basal 

 half or more pale gray (like "mantle"), this increasing in extent to 

 the fifth and extending farther on inner web than on outer, the 

 "wedge" thus formed abruptly defined against the subterminal 

 black; sixth primary pale gray, broadly tipped with white, and 

 crossed by a broad subterminal space of black, widest on outer web; 

 seventh primary similar, but the black more restricted and confined 

 to outer web; remaining primaries broadly tipped with white but 

 without any black; bill yellow, the mandible with a subterminal 

 lateral spot of red; iris silvery white to pale yellow; bare orbital 

 ring yellow (in life); legs and feet flesh color (in life). 



Adults in winter. — Similar to summer adults, but head and neck 

 (except throat and foreneck) streaked with dusky grayish brown. 



Young. — Predominant color grayish brown, nearly uniform on 

 under parts of body, the head and neck streaked with whitish, the 

 upper parts variegated by an irregular spotting of pale grayish 

 buffy, many of the feathers margined with the same; primary 

 coverts, primaries, and rectrices very dark grayish brown or dusky, 

 narrowly tipped with whitish, the two or three outer rectrices (on 

 each side) more or less mottled basally with whitish; bill pale flesh 

 color or fleshy white basally, blackish terminally, sometimes (in 

 younger birds) mostly blackish; iris brown; legs and feet pale flesh 

 color. 



