THE HERRING GULL. 729 



, No. 292. 



HERRING GULL. 



A. O. U. No. 51. Larus argentatus Pontojipidan. 



Description. — Adult in siimiiier: Mantle deep pearl-gray: primaries exten- 

 sively blackish, the first quill white basally on inner web, and with a large, round- 

 ed, subterminal white spot on inner web, and narrowly tipped, or not, with white; 

 the basal white of succeeding quills gra<lually encroaching on the black, but always 

 more extensive on the inner web until the seventh quill is reached, in which the 

 black is nearly obsolete : the second to sixth quills tip])ed with white ; remaining 

 plumage entirely white ; bill bright chrome with vermilion spot near angle, and 

 sometimes black traces: feet and legs purplish flesh-color. Adult in ■K'iutcr: 

 Similar but head and neck streaked with brownish gray: bill duller. Iiniuaturc: 

 Brownish gray, nearly uniform, or finely mottled with grayish white below; 

 streaked with the same on head and neck: upperparts irregularly varied, — brown- 

 ish gray of two shades with dull white and gra}ish bufif ; wing-quills and tail 

 brownish dusky, the former unmarked, the latter mottled laterally with dull buffy 

 or whitish: bill blackish, paling basally. Between this and the adult in high 

 plumage every gradation ap])ears. Length 22.00-26.00 (358.8-660.4) : av. of 

 nine specimens: wing 17.60 (447): tail (i.yz I 170.7): bill 2.14 (54.4); tarsus 

 2.68 (68.1). 



Recognition Marks. — Brant size: mantle rather light bluish gray; black 

 wing-tips (with white spots on adult) serve to distinguish from L. glauccsccns : 

 rosy feet from /,. calif amicus ( this is the sole certain distinction a-wing ) and 

 dcla-a'arcnsis : more extensive black on wing-tip and lighter mantle from occi- 

 dcntalis. and lighter mantle from 7'cg<c. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in Washington. Xcst: as in jireceding. Ei/f/s: 

 indistinguishable. Av. size, 2.85x2.00 (72.4x50.8). 



General Range. — The northern portion of the northern hemisphere; in 

 North America breeding from Maine, northern New York, the Great Lakes, 

 Minnesota, and British Columbia northward ; south in winter to Cuba and Lower 

 California. 



Range in Washington. — Cfinimon spring and fall migrant on Puget Sound; 

 sparingly resident in winter, chietly nortberh- ( Bellingham, San Juan Islands, 

 etc.). 



Authorities. — Rhoads, Auk, \'ol. X. Jan. 1893, p. 17. Rh. Kk. E. 



Specimens. — Prov. BN. E. 



"CAPTAIN, how many kinds >>i gulls do you see here in the course of a 

 year?" "Gulls? Kinds of gulls?" repeats the man in the jjilot-house, the 

 man wdio knows buoys, liarbc:)r lights and all ]M"oper things of seamanship 

 like a book. "Why, there isn't more than one kind, is there? W^ell, yes ; mebbe 

 thev's two kinds, the dai'k ones and the white ones; or mebbe thev's big and 

 little ones." This, of faithful attendants after twenty ^■ears ser\"ice at sea! 



