548 THE HERRING GULL. 
chrome yellow, a bright vermilion spot near tip of lower mandible; legs and feet 
flesh-color; iris lemon yellow; eye-lids bright red. Adult in winter: Similar, 
but head and neck streaked with grayish. Jimmature: Head and hind-neck 
whitish, streaked with light gray; mantle brownish dusky, its feathers marked 
and margined by pale buffy; wing-quills blackish, narrowly tipped with whitish; 
tail dusky with a narrow subterminal band of gray; remaining plumage white, 
more or less spotted and streaked or mottled below with brownish gray. Length 
28.00-31.00 (711.2-787.4) ; wing 18.50 (469.9) ; tail 7.00 (177.8) ; bill 2.50 (63.5) ; 
depth at angle of gonys 1.00 (25.4) ; tarsus 3.10 (78.7). 
Recognition Marks.—Eagle size; large size with black mantle distinctive. 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Ohio. Nest, on the ground, of grasses, sea- 
weed, etc. Eggs, 2-3, grayish olive, yellowish brown, etc., spotted and blotched 
with chocolate and with lilac shell-marks. Av. size, 3.05 x 2.15 (77.5 X 54.0). 
General Range.—Coasts of the North Atlantic; south in winter to Long 
Island and Italy. 
Range in Ohio.—Occasional winter visitor. Records from Cleveland, Cin- 
cinnati, and the lower Scioto. 
OUR recent knowledge of this, the largest of American Gulls, rests so 
far as this state is concerned, upon the statement of Mr. E. W. Vickers, who 
reports “one found dead floating among ice in the creek near Canton” ;? 
and that of Rev. W. F. Henninger, who says :? “On March 21, 1900, while 
out duck-hunting I observed one specimen of this superb species. While 
lying in a thicket on a small peninsula surrounded by the two arms of the Scioto 
River and a slough on three sides, a large Gull alighted on the gravelly bank 
of the river opposite me. Tho the bird was out of gun-shot range, with my 
field glass I could easily tell the species. After staying there for about three 
minutes, it raised its wing and soared majestically away, reminding one of 
the Eagle’s flight.” 
The Great Black-backed Gull is a common species of the North Atlantic. 
It is said to prey boldly upon the eggs and young of other species, and to 
attack the smaller mammals of the Labrador Coast, altho its principal diet is 
fish. It is at all times exceedingly wary, and in fair weather delights to soar 
at great heights. = 
No. 262. 
/ HERRING GULL: 
an O. U. No. 51. Larus argentatus Brinn. 
Description.— Adult in swmmer: Mantle deep pearl-gray; primaries exten- 
sively blackish, the first quill white basally on inner web, and with a large, rounded, 
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 
1 Jones, Cat. Birds of Ohio, p. 20. 
2 The Wilson Bulletin, No. 40, Sept., 1902, p. 709. 
