_ 
540 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
young, which they eat. They are, in the water, almost pre- 
cisely what the Crows and Jays are on the land. 
LARUS MARINUS. — Linneus. 
The Great Black-backed Gull. 
Larus marinus, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 225. Nutt. Man., IT. (1834) 308. 
Aud. Birds Am., VII. (1844) 172. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Adult. — The head, neck, entire under plumage, upper tail coverts, and tail 
are pure-white; the back and wings are of a dark-slate color; the primaries are deep | 
black, largely tipped with white, as are the extremities of most of the quills; the 
bill is gamboge-yellow, with an orange-red spot near the end of the lower mandible; 
legs and feet pale-yellow; iris white. 
Young. — Head, rump, and under plumage grayish-white, with streaks of light- 
brown; back and wings mottled with brownish-ash and grayish-white; primaries 
blackish-brown, having the tips edged with white; tail white, spotted with brown, 
and having a broad subterminal band of the same color; bill brownish-black, yel- 
lowish at the base; legs and feet yellow. 
Length, about thirty inches; wing, twenty; tail, nine; bill, two and ten-twelfths; 
tarsus, two-twelfths of an inch. 
Hab. —North Atlantic, Labrador; as far south as Florida in winter. 
The Black-backed Gull is of frequent occurrence on our 
coast in the autumn and winter months; and, according to 
Mr. George A. Boardman, a few breed as far south as the 
islands in the Bay of Fundy. Audubon describes its 
breeding habits as follows : — 
“ The nest of this species is usually placed on the bare rock of 
some low island, sometimes beneath a projecting shelf, sometimes 
in a wide fissure. In Labrador, it is formed of moss and seaweeds 
carefully arranged, and has a diameter of about two feet; being 
raised on the edges to the height of five or six inches, but seldom 
more than two inches thick in the centre, where feathers, dry grass, 
and other materials, are added. The eggs are three, and in no 
instance have I found more. They are two inches and seven- 
eighths in length by two inches and one-eighth in breadth; broadly 
ovate; rough, but not granulated; of a pale earthy greenish-gray 
color, irregularly blotched and spotted with brownish-black, dark- 
umber, and dull-purple.” 
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