T26 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



with white ; head, neck, tail and tinder parts pure white ; bill bright chrome 

 yellow, with a large vermilion spot; iris lemon-yellow; eyelids and mouth 

 vennilion; legs and feet pale flesh color. luunaiiirc: "Upper parts dusky 

 chocolate-brown, mottled with whitish and light rufous, the latter on back 

 and wings, the feathers being tipped and wing coverts deeply indented 

 with this color; primaries and tail brownish black, the foniier tipped, the 

 latter subterminally barred, and its outer feathers mottled, with whitish." 

 [Coues]. Under parts varied with whitish and duskv, lightest on the throat ; 

 bill black. The specimen figured by Mr Fuertes, plate 5, is evidenth' 

 in the faded-out plumage of the first winter, being much lighter than the 

 average fall specimen of the first year. 



Distinctive marks. Mature birds of this species can always be recog- 

 nized even at a great distance by their large size and black mantle. Imma- 

 ture birds difi^cr from the Glaucous gull, our only species which compares 

 with them in size, b}' their dark primaries and the general!}' darker coloration 

 of the upper parts. 



The Great black -l:)acked gull, Saddle-back, or Coffin-carrier is less 

 arctic in distribution than the three species just described, breeding as far 

 south as the Bay of Fundy. It is consequently more often seen with us, 

 t)ccurring as a common winter \-isitant on the shores of Long Island, Mr 

 Butcher's dates ranging from Septeinljer 22 to March 17, and a regular 

 but uncommon winter visitant on the Great Lakes [see Savage, x\uk, 12 13 12, 

 and Davison, Birds of Niagara County]. It is also occasionally taken in 

 the interior of the State, as at Brockport [sec Short, p. 5]; and Branchport, 

 Ajiril 18, 1898 [see Stone, Auk, 16:284]; and at Booneville, February 1903 

 [see Johnson. Auk, 20:303]. Correspondents also report it from the shore of 

 Lake Ontario in the counties of Orleans, Monroe and Oswego ; also from Ca}-- 

 uga and Seneca lakes. 



The Black -back is chiefly a maritime species. It is very noisy in its 

 breeding haunts, which are confined to the shores of the north Atlantic. 

 All observers agree that it is one of the wariest birds at all tiixies of year. 



