THE HERRING GULL. 729 
No. 292. 
HERRING GULL. 
“A 
A. O. U. No. 51. Larus argentatus Pontoppidan. 
Description.—Adult in summer: Mantle deep pearl-gray; primaries exten- 
sively blackish, the first quill white basally on inner web, and with a large, round- 
ed, subterminal white spot on inner web, and narrowly tipped, or not, with white; 
the basal white of succeeding quills gradually encroaching on the black, but always 
more extensive on the inner web until the seventh quill is reached, in which the 
black is nearly obsolete; the second to sixth quills tipped with white; remaining 
plumage entirely white; bill bright chrome with vermilion spot near angle, and 
sometimes black traces; feet and legs purplish flesh-color. Adult in winter: 
Similar but head and neck streaked with brownish gray; bill duller. Jmmature: 
Brownish gray, nearly uniform, or finely mottled with grayish white below; 
streaked with the same on head and neck; upperparts irregularly varied,—brown- 
ish gray of two shades with dull white and grayish buff; wing-quills and tail 
brownish dusky, the former unmarked, the latter mottled laterally with dull buffy 
or whitish; bill blackish, paling basally. Between this and the adult in high 
plumage every gradation appears. Length 22.00-26.00 (558.8-660.4); av. of 
nine specimens: wing 17.60 (447); tail 6.72 (170.7); bill 2.14 (54.4); tarsus 
2.68 (68.1). 
Recognition Marks.—bBrant size; mantle rather light bluish gray; black 
wing-tips (with white spots on adult) serve to distinguish from L. glaucescens ; 
rosy feet from L. californicus (this is the sole certain distinction a-wing) and 
delawarensis; more extensive black on wing-tip and lighter mantle from occi- 
dentalis, and lighter mantle from vege. 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. Nest: as in preceding. Eggs: 
indistinguishable. Avy. size, 2.85 x 2.00 (72.4 x 50.8). 
General Range.—The northern portion of the northern hemisphere; in 
North America breeding from Maine, northern New York, the Great Lakes, 
Minnesota, and British Columbia northward; south in winter to Cuba and Lower 
California. 
Range in Washington.—Common spring and fall migrant on Puget Sound ; 
sparingly resident in winter, chiefly northerly (Bellingham, San Juan Islands, 
eles): 
Authorities.—Rhoads, Auk, Vol. X. Jan. 1893, p. 17. Rh. Kk. E. 
Specimens.—Proy. BN. E. 
“CAPTAIN, how many kinds of gulls do you see here in the course of a 
year?” “Gulls? Kinds of gulls?” repeats the man in the pilot-house, the 
man who knows buoys, harbor lights and all proper things of seamanship 
like a book. “Why, there isn’t more than one kind, is there? Well, yes; mebbe 
they’s two kinds, the dark ones and the white ones; or mebbe they’s big and 
little ones.”’ This, of faithful attendants after twenty years service at sea! 
