312 LARID&, GULLS.—GEN. 281-5. 
guishable from the foregoing. Pacific Coast, common; breeding northerly ; 
U.S. in winter. Z. glaucescens and LL. chalcopterus (younger) Lawr. in 
Bp., 842, 843; Couns, /. c. 295; Bonar., Consp. Av. ii, 216; Laroides 
glaucopterus BRUCH. -= 9. a2) -) ae te) Jee teen eee GNU OMS Ormn se 
{{ Primaries crossed with black (adult), or all black (young). 
Great Black-backed Gull. Saddle-back. Coffin-carrier. Cobb. Feet 
flesh-colored ; bill yellow with red spot. Mantle blackish slate-color; 1st 
primary with the end white for 2-3 inches; 2nd primary with a white sub- 
apical spot, and, like the remaining ones that are crossed with black, having 
the tip white (when not quite mature, the 1st with small white tip and sub- 
apical spot, the 2nd with white tip alone). In winter, head and neck streaked 
with dusky. Young: whitish, variously washed, mottled and patched with 
brown or dusky ; quills and tail black, with or without white tips; bill black. 
Very large; equalling or even exceeding ZL. glaucus. N. Atlantic; S. along 
the U. S. coast in winter; Florida (Audubon). Nurr., ii, 308; Aup., vii, 
172, pl. 450; Lawr. in Bp,, 844... . . . . . . . + MARINUS. 
Oss. JL. fuscus, a European species bearing the same relation to marinus that 
leucopterus does to glaucus, has been attributed to this country, upon insufficient 
evidence. Bonar., Synopsis U.S. Birds, No. 298; Nurt., ii, 302. 
Herring Gull. Common Gull. Feet flesh color; bill yellow with red 
spot; mantle pale dull blue (darker than in glaucus, but nothing like the 
deep slate of marinus—much the same as in all the rest of the species) ; 
primaries marked as in marinus (but the great majority of specimens will be 
found to have the not quite mature or final condition) ; length 22-27; wing 
15-18; tarsus 24-22; bill about 24 long, about 3-3} deep at the base, and 
about the same at the protuberance. In winter: head and hind neck 
streaked with dusky. Young: at first almost entirely fuscous or sooty- 
brown, the feathers of the back and wings with paler edges; bill black; 
quills and tail black, white-tipped or not; size at the minimum above given. 
As it grows old, it gradually lightens; the head, neck and under parts are 
usually quite whitish, before the markings of the quills are apparent, and 
before the blue begins to show, as it does in patches, mixed with brown ; 
the black on the tail narrows to a bar, at the time the primaries are assuming 
their characters, but this bar disappears before the primaries gain their 
perfect pattern. At one time the bill is flesh colored or yellowish, black- 
tipped. The American bird proves to average larger than the European in 
all its parts, as observed in several other water-birds: whence L. smithsoni- 
anus Cougs, J. c. 296. N. Am., abundant, both coastwise and in the 
interior, breeding northward, generally distributed at other seasons. L. 
argentatoides Bonar., Syn. No. 229; Ricu., F. B.-A. ii, 417. Norr., 
ii, 8304; Aup., vii, 163, pl. 448; Lawr. in Bp., 844. . . ARGENTATUS. 
Var. occipentaLis. Mantle notably darker, rather slaty-blue than grayish-blue ; 
bill stouter, especially towards the end, the depth at the protuberance usually rather 
ereater than at the base; greatest depth ~; at the nostrils 3. Pacific Coast, 
abundant. Avup.,-vii, 161; Lawr. in Bp., 845 ; Couns, /.¢c. 296; Exxror, pl. 52. The 
