990 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — LONGIPENNES. 



of the feather ; 2d with a white spot near end on whole of inner and most of outer web, divided 

 by the bhick shaft ; tips of all white ; black forming merely a narrow subterminal band on 6th. 

 Tips of inner primaries white, as are also tips of secondaries, the line of demarcation between 

 the white and the blue of the mantle pretty distinct. In breeding plumage : Eyelids bright 

 saffron-yellow or red. Eyes brown. Upper mandible bright chrome, the greater part of the 

 lower vermilion, the rest chrome. Gape of mouth deep crimson. Feet green. Winter plu- 

 mage : Bill dully colored. Head and neck behind streaked and mottled with dusky. Nearly 

 mature : As in the preceding. Tail with an imperfect subterminal black bar. Some feathers 

 of upper parts edged with gray. White space at end of 1st primary crossed by a transverse 

 black bar; no spot on 2d primary. Young: Bill black on terminal half. Head, neck, rump, 

 wing-coverts, and secondaries, mottled with dusky. Primaries and tail uniformly brownish- 

 black, scarcely lighter at tips. Back as in adults, but the feathers with grayish edges. Di- 

 mensions: Length 20.00-23.00; extent 50.00-54.00; wing 15.00-17.00; bill 1.60-2.00; depth 

 at angle 0.56; tarsus 2.00-2.25; middle toe and claw about the same. Adults near the larger 

 of these dimensions. Western and Arctic North America, breeding abundantly in the U. S., 

 chiefly in the interior; extends S. in winter into Mexico ; E. sometimes to Kansas. Eggs 2.60 

 X 1-80. Downy young pale gray, clouded on the back with dusky, and spotted on the head 

 with black. 



li. delawaren'sis. (Of Delaware.) Ring-billed Gull. Common American Gull. 

 Bill rather stout, as long as middle toe and claw ; upper mandible considerably convex at end ; 

 under mandible much thickened at angle, which is prominent; outline from base to augle, and 

 from angle to tip, both concave. Middle toe and claw scarcely more than | the tarsus. Adult 

 J' 9 , in summer: Bill greenish-yellow, at tip chrome, encircled at angle with a broad band of 

 black. Feet dusky bluish-green in dried state, greenish-yellow in life; edges of eyelids red ; 

 iris straw-yellow. Mantle light pearl-blue, fading into white at ends of secondaries, the line 

 of demarcation indistinct. Primaries: 1st black, basal portion of inner web very light bluish- 

 white (almost white), with a spot of white about 1.25 long near end, of equal extent on both 

 webs, divided by black shaft; 2d with a small white spot on inner web, and inner web 

 whitish at base for a longer distance; the whitish of bases of primaries regularly increases in- 

 ward and the black decreases, until on 6th it is merely a transverse bar. Tip of 1st primary 

 black, of others white, the spot being very minute on 2d, and gradually increasing ; 7th and 

 innermost primaries without any black, like secondaries. Adult in winter: As in summer, 

 but head and neck behind spotted (not streaked nor nebulated) with dusky. Young, first 

 winter: Upper parts irregularly mottled with dusky brown and the pearl-blue of adults, the 

 wing-coverts being almost entirely dusky, with lighter margins to the feathers. Head, neck, 

 and under parts, mottled with white and dusky. Primaries black ; some secondaries with a 

 patch of brownish-black near ends ; inner ones wholly brownish-black, narrowly tipped with 

 whitish. Tail with a broad subterminal band of black, narrowly tipped with white. Ter- 

 minal half of bill black, the extreme tip yellowish. Young-of-the-year in August : Every- 

 where mottled thickly with brownish -black ; on upper parts the feathers with yellowish-white 

 edges, the pearl-blue of adults scarcely apparent, except on wing-coverts. Terminal § of bill 

 with tip black, the rest light flesh-color. Length 19.75; extent 48.50; wing 14.75; bill above 

 1.70; gape 2.30; height at nostril 0.45; at angle 0.50; tarsus 2.10; middle toe 1.80. North 

 America at large, one of the commonest species, both coastwise and in the interior ; breeds in 

 some of the U. S. but mainly in British America, to far north ; extends S. in winter to Mexico 

 and Cuba. In summer this Gull is like the last, chiefly an inland species, nesting on lakes and 

 marshes; but at other seasons it ranges coastwise. Eggs 2-3, usually 3, 2.40 X 1.70. 

 L. ca'nus. (Lat. canus, hoary gray.) European Mew^ Gull. Originally assigned to North 

 America on strength of a specimen shot by me in Labrador in 1860. It is entirely like the next 

 to be described excepting the following particulars : Somewhat larger. Tarsus j longer than 



