THE BON APARTE CU LL. 743 
mous scoop net full of fish, its parasites are sure to be ready and fearlessly 
seize the fish from its very jaws, the stupid bird never resenting the insult, or 
appearing to take the least notice of the little pilferer which it could easily rid 
itself of by one blow, or even swallow alive. 
No. 298. 
BONAPARTE S. GULE, 
A. O. U. No. 60. Larus philadelphia (Ord.). 
Synonym.—SEA PIcEon. 
Description.—Adult in summer: Head including throat blackish slate, 
mantle pearl-gray ; primaries extensively white, the first six with black terminal 
portions, the third to sixth, in addition, narrowly tipped with white; the first 
quill with outer web and tip black, the second and third altogether white with 
black tips, the fourth white on outer web, pearl-gray on inner web, with touch 
of white at extremity of terminal black, effecting the transition to the nearly uni- 
form basal pearl-gray of inner primaries; remaining plumage pure white, the 
underparts more or less flushed with pale rosy; bill jet black; feet and legs rich 
orange-red; feathering of eyelids white posteriorly, the skin carmine. Adult m 
winter: - Without the black hood; a dab of slate behind the ear and another before 
the eye, with a plumbeous suffusion of occiput instead; rosy tint of underparts 
wanting; bill lighter basally, and feet pale flesh-color. Jimmature: Like adult 
in winter, but plumbeous suffusion of hind-head more extensive and tinged with 
brownish; the pearl-gray of mantle less distinct and varied by brownish gray; 
lesser wing-coverts and inner tertials mostly brownish gray; primaries mostly 
blackish on exposed outer webs, where the adult is white, ‘and white on outer 
webs of inner primaries, where adult is pearl-gray; the inner primaries narrowly 
tipped with white as before; tail crossed terminally, or nearly so, with a broad 
band of blackish or brownish dusky; bill still lighter, but blackish toward tip. 
Length 12.00-14.00 (304.8-355.6); av. of six specimens: wing 10.30 (261.6) ; 
tail 3.60 (91.4) ; bill 1.12 (28.5); tarsus 1.41 (35.8). 
Recognition Marks.—Little Hawk size; smallest of the local Gulls; size of 
Common Tern (Sterna hirundo); head black, in breeding plumage; bill black or 
mostly black; mantle gull-blue; primaries mostly white and gull-blue, tipped with 
black, and very narrowly with white. To be told at a glance from the Terns by 
its shorter, squarish tail, and in breeding plumage, by head being blackish all 
around. 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. Nest: of sticks lined with grass, 
, placed four to twenty feet high in bushes, trees, or on stumps. Baer 3, 
a 4, greenish olive or brown, erie smallish spots or blotches of umber and 
lilac, chiefly about larger end. Av. size, 1.95 x 1.35 (49.5 x 34.3). 
General Range.—Whole of North America, breeding mostly north of the 
United States. Not yet recorded from south of the United States, tho reported 
from the Bermudas. 
