120 CHECK LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



766. Stercorarins parasiticus (BrUnn.) Gray, b 654. c 54i. R 698. 



Parasitic Jager. 



767. Stercorarins buffoni (Boie) Coues. b G55. c 542. R 699. 



Arctic Jager; Long-tailed Jiiger. 



768. Larus glancus Brunn. B G56. c 543. R 660. 



Glaucous Gull. 



769. Larus leucopterus Faber. b 658. c 544. R661. 



White-winged Gull. 



770. Larus glaucescens Licht. b 657, 659. c 545. R 662. 



Glaucous-winged Gull. 



771. Larus marinus L. b 660. c 546. R 663. 



Great Black-backed Gull. 



772. Larus argentatus Brunn. B — . c 547. R 666. 



Herring Gull. 



773. Larus argentatus smithsonianus Coues. b 661. c 547a. R 666a. 



Smithsonian Herring Gull. 



the nose ; from the scale-like covering of the nostrils. Temminck, habitually careless 

 in such matters, originally wrote pomarinus, and we have almost always said '" pomarine" 

 jager, with some vague notion of the sea in the case of this marine bird ; but Newton's 

 explanation of the word, as above, is imdoubtedly correct. S^d^cx or jaeger is the German 

 for hunter, these birds being habitual hunters and plunderers of the gulls and terns. 

 The name was originally applied to a class of wild huntsmen who lived on the banks of 

 the Rhine, and supported themselves entirely by plunder and robbery. 



766. S. par-a-si'-ti-cus. Gr. TrapafriTiwos, Lat. parasiticus, parasitic ; Gr. trapda-tros, Lat. para- 



situs, a parasite, from wapd, by tlie side of, and <t7tos, grain, food ; literally, one who sits 

 at the table of another ; as we should say now, in vulgar parlance, a " free-luncher," 

 " bummer," " dead-beat " ; hence, in general, any kind of a hanger-on. 



767. S. buf-f6n'-i. To Jean Louis Le Clerc, Compte de Buffon, the famous French panegyrist 



of nature, particular friend of Linnaeus, who wrote a great history of birds with the 

 help of the Abbe de Montbeillard, and caused Daubenton to prepare the celebrated 

 1008 Planches Enlumine'es. 



768. Lar'-us glau'-cus. Gr. \dpos, Lat. lams, a gull. — Lat. (//aucus, glaucous, bluish, y\avK6s. 



See Glaucidinm, No. 484. Gull is supposed to be named for its gluttony, from gulo, a 

 glutton {(p'^a, the gullet) ; Welsh, gwi/lan; Fr., goeland. 



769. L. leu-cop'-ter-us. Gr. MvkSs, white, and wTepov, wing. 



770. L. glau-ces'-cens. Lat. (decidedly post-classic) glaucescens, the present participle of a 



suppositious inceptive verb glaucesco, I grow bluish ; meaning here somewhat bluish. 



771. L. ma-ri'-nus. Lat. ??ia?-/nas, marine ; mnre, the sea. 



772. L. ar-gen-ta'-tus. Lat. argentatus, silvered, silvery ; the participle of an obsolete verb 



argento; argentum, silver, money, from &pyvpos, silver, apyos, white, the color of the 

 metal. One writer has criticised the use of argentatus to denote a silvery color, arguing 

 that argentatus would mean silvered over, silver-plated, or frosted, and proposed to sub- 

 stitute some other derivative of argentum. But this is hypercriticism ; the word is 

 more apt or fit for the bird than most specific names are. 



773. L. a. smlth-s6n-I-a'-nQs. To the Smithsonian Institution ; this named for James Smith- 



son, illegitimate son of Hugh Percy, Duke of Northumberland. 



