584 



GA VLf:. 



LXRIDM. 



LARIDJ^.. 



LaRUS PHILADELPHIA (Ord*). 



BONAPAETIAN GULL. 



Larus Bonapartii. 



Larus. — Bill of moderate length, strong, hard, compressed, cutting, slightly 

 decurved towards the point, lower mandible shorter than the upper, the sym- 

 phisis angiilar, prominent. Nostrils lateral, near the middle of the beak, 

 pierced longitudinally, pervious. Legs moderately slender, lower part of the 

 tibiaj naked, the tarsus long, three toes in front entirely palmated, the hind 

 toe free, short, but not rudimentary, articulated high up on the tarsus above 

 the line of the other toes. Wings long, the first and second quill -feathers varying 

 slightly in their relative length, but nearly equal. Tail square at the end. 



The late William Thompson was the first to record the 

 occurrence of this small American Gull in the British 

 Islands (Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1848, i. p. 192). A speci- 

 men was killed on the tidal portion of the river Lagan, 

 between Ormeau Bridge and the Botanic Garden, about a 



* Sfenin Philadelphia, Ord, in Guthrie's Geography, '2nd Amer. Ed., ii. 

 p. 319 (18Lt). The name of Larus bonapartii was not conferred by Swainson 

 until 1831. 



