BIRDS OF NEW YORK 125 



and shadings of slaty or brownish. Immature birds are darker colored 

 than the Iceland gull, the flight feathers being brownish gray, darker on 

 the outer webs; tail almost solidly drab gray, the base and outer feathers 

 sprinkled with dingy white; the barring and mottling is coarser and darker 

 than in leucopterus [see Dwight, Auk, 23:36-41]. 



This species, first described by Mr Brewster in 1883, is little known 

 as yet, but is apparently a rare winter visitant on the waters of this State. 

 The first specimen from New York was shot at Green Island, on the Mohawk 

 river, January 27, 1884, by Edward Root, and is now in the State Museum, 

 Park Collection. Mr Park's notes made from the fresh specimen may be 

 of interest: "Length 23 inches; extent 51.75; wing 15.75; ^^^^ 7! tarsus 2.2; 

 middle toe and claw 2.25 ;bill 1.6 ; bill of a general light watery yellow, palest 

 and with a greenish shade at base, with a small vermilion spot on lower 

 mandible about at angle in a cloud of dusky. Upper mandible on top 

 chrome yellow at angle with a line of red along ridge toward the point; 

 iris mottled grayish brown ; tarsus and toes flesh color, claws nearly black. 

 Weight 2 1 ounces. Poor in flesh, stomach contained a few grains of gravel. 

 Ovaries show that it had been through at least one breeding season." This 

 bird was identified by Mr Brewster. Its head and neck are streaked and 

 suffused with grayish and the breast is slightly soiled with grayish. Thus 

 it is evidently a nearly mature specimen, being a bird of the second or third 

 winter. A second record for New York is given by Braislin, Auk, 

 16: 190; it is an immature male which was shot by John Tieman, 5 

 miles off Rockaway Beach, L. I., on March 8, 1898. An immature female 

 from. Stamford, Conn., February 16, 1894, is reported by Porter [Auk, 12 : 76; 

 also Dwight, Auk, 23: 37]. 



Larus marinus Linnaeus 

 Great Black-backed Gull 



Plate 5 



Larus marinus Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:136 



DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 308, fig. 283 

 A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 47 



mari'nus, Lat., marine 



Description. Large : Mantle slaty black with purplish reflections ; 

 primaries slaty, or blackish tipped with white ; secondaries broadly tipped 



