240 LONG- WINGED SWIMMERS — LONGIPENNES. 



Slave Lake. The nests were in great numbers and close together, on a point of a 

 large wooded island, and are said to have been made, with considerable art, of sticks, 

 leaves, and feathers ; not being placed in unsheltered positions, but generally hidden 

 among low bushes or beside drift-logs, and often under willows. The nests were deep 

 and large. 



Dr. Bryant mentions finding the Herring Gull, in 1860, one of the most com- 

 mon birds on the coast of Labrador, where it was breeding on nearly all the grassy 

 islands ; and he was assured by the inhabitants that it had always been abundant 

 there. He visited thirty of its breeding-places between Komaine and Chateau Beau, 

 at all of which there were also Black-backed Gulls in greater or less abundance. As 

 the eggs and young are both favorite articles of food, the birds are much harassed 

 by the inhabitants. The eggs were found to be subject to greater variations in form 

 and color than those of most of the species of this genus. The large spots, which 

 form so marked a feature in the eggs of the marinus, were seldom seen. He gives 

 the measurement of four typical specimens as follows : 2.73 inches by 1.G4 ; 2.84 by 

 1.83 ; 2.05 by 1.79 ; 2.91 by 1.94. 



In the various examples of the eggs of this species which I have examined, the 

 ground-color has been found to vary from a pearly-white, or a pale drab, or a grayish 

 green, to a brownish clay-color. The markings are more usually of a violet-gray, 

 blended with the more conspicuous blotches of a deep sepia-brown. 



Larus cachinnans. 



PALLAS'S HEKRING GULL. 



Larus cachinnans, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-As. II. 1826, 318. —Saunders, P. Z. S. 1878, 119. 



Larus argentatus, Auct. ex Siberia (part). 



Larus (Glaucus) leucophccus, " Licht." Bp.uch, J. f. 0. 1853, 101 (Red Sea). 



Larus leucophu us, Sharpe & Dresser, Birds Eur. Pt. XXII. 1873. 



Larus (Glaucus) Michakellesii, Bkuch, 1. e. 



Larus (Glaucus) borealis, "Brandt," Bruoh, 1. c. 



Larus borealis, Dall & Bannist. Tr. Chicago Acad. I. 1869, 305 (St. Michael's, Alaska). — Baird, 



1. c. 

 Larus argentatus d. borealis, Coues, B. N. W. 1S74, 626. 

 Larus epargyrus, Licht. Nomencl. 1854, 99. 

 Larus fusccscens, "Licht." Bkuch, J. f. O. 1S53, 100 (part). 



Hab. Northern Asia, from the Red Sea, Kashmir, etc., to Kamtschatka and the Arctic Ocean ; 

 coast of Alaska (common at St. Michael's, Dall & Bannister, 1. c), and south, in winter, to 

 California. 



Sp. Char. Similar to L. calif ornicus, but larger, the bill more robust, without the black spots, 

 and the feet yellow (Saunders). Adult, in summer: Mantle deep cinereous-blue, precisely as in 

 L. calt'fomic.us, the secondaries and tertials broadly and abruptly tipped with white. Outer pri- 

 mary brownish black, the terminal portion, for the space of about 2.25 inches, white, marked by a 

 subterminal spot or broad bar of black ; 1 second quill brownish black, tipped with white, the 

 inner web marked near the end by a large oval spot of white ; third, similar, but becoming bluish 

 gray basally, the tip only white, the inner web paler gray than the outer, becoming lighter termi- 

 nally, where sharply defined against the black, and reaching to within about 2.50-2.75 inches of 

 the end of the feather ; fourth similar, but the black more restricted, the inner web decidedly 

 white posteriorly, next the black ; fifth similar, with the black still more restricted, the gray of 

 the outer web lighter ; sixth quill pale grayish blue, passing into white terminally, crossed near 

 the end by a broad bar or band of black ; seventh similar, but with the black band incomplete or 

 scarcely indicated ; rest of the quills pale grayish blue, passing gradually into white on ends. 



1 In some specimens the white tip is worn off, thus causing the black to appear terminal. 



