54 8 THE HERRING GULL. 



■ft How, a bright vermilion spot near tip of lower mandible; legs and feet 

 flesh-color; iris lemon yellow; eye-lids bright red. Adult in ivinter: Similar, 

 bin head and neck streaked with grayish. Immature: Head and hind-neck 

 whitish, streaked with light gray; mantle brownish dusky, its feathers marked 

 and margined by pale buffy; wing-quills blackish, narrowly tipped with whitish; 

 tail dusky with a narrow subterminal band of gray; remaining plumage white, 

 more or less spotted and streaked or mottled below with brownish gray. Length 

 28.00-31.00 (71 1.2-787.4) ; wing 18.50 (469-9) ; t ail 7-°° ( T 77-8) ; bill 2.50 (63.5) ; 

 depth at angle of gonys 1.00 (25.4) ; tarsus 3.10 (78.7). 



Recognition Marks. — Eagle size; large size with black mantle distinctive. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in Ohio. Nest, on the ground, of grasses, sea- 

 weed, etc. Eggs, 2-3, grayish olive, yellowish brown, etc., spotted and blotched 

 with chocolate and with lilac shell-marks. Av. size, 3.05 x 2.15 177.5 x 54.6). 



General Range. — Coasts of the North Atlantic ; south in winter to Long 

 Island and Italy. 



Range in Ohio. — Occasional winter visitor. Records from Cleveland. Cin- 

 cinnati, and the lower Scioto. 



OUR recent knowledge of this, the largest of American Gulls, rests so 

 far as this state is concerned, upon the statement of Mr. E. W. Vickers, who 

 reports "one found dead floating among ice in the creek near Canton" j 1 

 and that of Rev. W. F. Henninger, who says: 2 "On March 21, 1900, while 

 out duck-hunting I observed one specimen of this superb species. While 

 lying in a thicket on a small peninsula surrounded by the two arms of the Scioto 

 River and a slough on three sides, a large Gull alighted on the gravelly bank 

 of the river opposite me. Tho the bird was out of gun-shot range, with my 

 field glass I could easily tell the species. After staying there for about three 

 minutes, it raised its wing and soared majestically away, reminding one of 

 the Eagle's flight." 



The Great Black-backed Gull is a common species of the North Atlantic. 

 It is said to prey boldly upon the eggs and young of other species, and to 

 attack the smaller mammals of the Labrador Coast, altho its principal diet is 

 fish. It is at all times exceedingly wary, and in fair weather delight- to soar 

 at great heights. 



No. 262. 



HERRING GULL. 



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



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

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

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

 the basal white of succeeding quills gradually encroaching on the black, but always 



1 Jones, Cat. Birds of Ohio, p. 29. 



1 Bulletin, No. 40, Sept., 1902, p. 79. 



