310 LAKID.E. 



on the nape followed liy a greyish interval, and then a hroad hiaek 

 band, with irregular edges, across the shoulders and for some 

 distance on each side of the neck ; carpal joint and wing-coverts 

 thickly mottled with blackish, and the long inner secondaries 

 streaked with black along the greater part of the outer webs con- 

 tiguous to the shafts ; 7th primary often plain, hut sometimes with 

 a minute black spot on the outer web ; tail with a terminal black 

 bar which is broad on all except the outside rectrices : bill and 

 tarsi dark brown (with a reddish tinge in life). 



Dotvnii nestling. Euff on the nape, shading into dark grey on the 

 back ; underparts white ; toes brown, webs yellowish. 



Birds from Bering Sea and the North Pacific are on average a 

 trifle larger than those from the Atlantic, and they exhibit, as a 

 rule, a little more development of the usually diminutive hind-toe. 

 Sometimes there is even a very minute but sharply pointed nail 

 on each hind-toe, though often on one only. This development 

 is not confined to examples from the North Pacific, for it has been 

 found in birds from the British Islands, Greenland, and the eastern 

 side of North America. Birds which exhibit this characteristic 

 have been separated specifically or subspecifically under the names 

 of liissa kotzehui and Rissa 'pollicaris. It has even been asserted that 

 some examples from the Pacific coast have the hind-toe and claw 

 as fully developed as in typical Larus ; but this bold statement 

 may be owing to the fact that at least one such bird authori- 

 tatively called Eissa tridacii/Ja jwllicaris is not a liiisa at all, but 

 a bird of the Larus canus section. Dr. Palmen finds that Kitti- 

 wakes from the North Pacific have always some black on the 6th 

 primary ; but this is not borne out by our Museum series, in which 

 there are several Aleutian and Alaskan birds with the 6th primary 

 as spotless as the 7th is. 



Hah. Circumpolar, Arctic, and Sub-Arctic regions in summer — 

 from as far north as man has penetrated to the north of Spits- 

 bergen, and uj) to 81° 40' in Smith Sound — down to the north-west 

 of France, the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the Atlantic side, and the 

 Kuril Islands in the Pacific (breeding) ; in winter southward to the 

 Mediterranean, inland waters down to the Caspian, the Canaries, 

 Bermuda, and along both sides of America to about 35° N. lat. 

 The record of circumpolar continuity is complete between the North 

 Cape and Bering Strait, by way of Siberia and the islands to the 

 north, while in Arctic America it is only defective as regards the 

 smaU interval between Prince Albert Land and Point Barrow. 



a. Yix ad. sk. Scotland, autumn plumage. Col. Montagu [P.]. 



b, c. Ad. sk. Orkneys {Hubbard). Salvin-Godnian Coll. 

 d, e. Pull. st. Orkneys, July (/. Dunri). Purchased. 



f,g. Ad. et pull. Orkneys, June, July( J. Z>mww). H. Saunders Coll. 



sk. 



h. c? ad. St. Hoy, Orkneys {J. Baker). Purchased. 



i, k. Ad. st. • Hebrides, summer. Theodore Walker, 



Esq. [P.]. 



1,711. Ad. St. Bass Rock, Firth of Forth, J. II. Gurney, Esq. 



summer. [P.]. 



