998 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — LONGIPENNES. 



gull-blue, as in adult, but the feathers so broadly (for h inch) tipped with grayish -brown, 

 fading into dull white at tip, that the original color is nearly lost. Lesser wing-coverts and 

 inner secondaries brownish-black, the latter edged with the color of edgings of back. Bastard 

 quills and feathers along edge of wing variegated with black and white. Primaries black ; 

 outer f of inner vanes of the first four bluish-white to near the end ; both vanes of the others 

 of that color for a little distance ; extreme tips of all but the two first white. Secondaries light 

 gull-blue, each with a large terminal blackish spot continuous with black ends of inner pri- 

 maries. Tail with a broad terminal bar of black, and very narrowly tipped with dull white. 

 Length 14.00; extent 32.00; wing 10.25; culmen 1.20; gape 1.75; height of bill at nostrils 

 0.25; tarsus, or middle toe and claw, 1.40. North America at large, both coastwise and in 

 the interior, migrating through and wintering in the U. S., breeding chiefiy in high latitudes; 

 abundant ; especially numerous along the Atlantic coast during the migrations ; Bermudas ; 

 accidental in Europe (Heligoland, once). One of the most airy, graceful, and elegant of the 

 family. Eggs 1.80-1.95 X 1.30-1.34, olive-gray, , with a close wreath of very dark and 

 lighter brown splashes around the larger end, and other scratches and spots of the same scat- 

 tered over the whole surface. In the interior this species and the last may often be seen win- 

 nowing over ploughed land, seeking for earth-worms, grubs, etc 



C. miuii'tus. (Lat. minute, very small, as this Gull is.) Little Gull. Least Gull. 

 Adult (J 9 , breeding plumage : Hood black. Mantle very pale pearl-gray. Primaries sim- 

 ilar, shading darker toward the inner margins, very broadly edged and tipped with pure white, 

 and not crossed with any pattern in black ; white of under parts sufi'used with rosy. Bill dark 

 lake-red, drying reddish -brown; feet vermilion, drying orange. Size very small; length 

 10.50-11.50, averaging 11.00; wing 9.00 or less; tail 4.00 or less; culmen, tarsus, and mid- 

 dle toe with claw, each about 1.00. Adults in winter lack the hood, the head white, more or 

 less gray or dusky on occiput and auriculars. Young birds resemble adults in winter, but 

 are extensively dark brown above, with buff tips of the feathers ; wing-coverts and inner quills 

 tipped with white ; primaries sooty-blackish in their central fields, white edged and tipped ; tail 

 with a broad black subterminal band. This Gull, the smallest of its tribe, originally described 

 as Asiatic in 1771 by Peter S. Pallas, and well known to be also European and African, was 

 ascribed to North America in 1831 by Swaiuson and Richardson (F. B.-A. ii, p. 426), on the 

 strength of a specimen said to have been procured in 1821 on Sir John Franklin's first expedi- 

 tion, and identified by Sabine. In 1862 I included it in my Monograph of the Larince (Proc. 

 Phila. Acad. p. 311), but with doubt, as its alleged occurrence had never been accredited. It 

 has therefore been omitted from most of our late works. But quite recently it has been found 

 on Long Island (Dutcher, Auk, Apr. 1888, p. 171), and is also known to have occurred in 

 the Bermudas. Chroicocephalus minutus of Key, 4th ed. 1890, p. 906. Larits minutus, 

 A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, No. [60.1.]. 



RHODOSTE'THIA. (Gr. pobov, hrodon, the rose ; arijOos, stethos, the breast.) Wedge- 

 tail Gulls. Tail cuneate (here only among Laridce). Otherwise, form much as in other 

 small Gulls ; bill weak and slender, with little salience of the angle ; wings folding beyond 

 tail- No colored hood, but a black collar round neck. Under plumage blossoming in the 

 breeding season. One species. 



R. ro'sea. (Lat. roseus, rosaceous, rosy.) Wedge-tailed Gull. Rosy Gull. Ross' 

 Gull. Adult in summer : White, rosy-tinted ; a black collar, but no dark hood ; mantle 

 pearly-blue; under side of wings the same; secondaries and inner primaries broadly tipped 

 with white; outer web of 1st primary black. Bill black; eye-ring and feet red. Length 

 14.00; wing 10.50; tail 5.50, graduated 1.00 or more; bill 0.75, very slender; tarsus 1.20; 

 middle toe and claw the same. Adult in winter: No black collar; a dusky spot before eye; 

 pearl-blue of mantle extending on head ; otherwise as in summer. Young : Extensively 

 marked with blackish on upper parts, including wings ; tail tipped with black ; at an early 



