BONAPARTE S GULL. 57 



round leaden-black, with a spot of white feathers above and 

 below the eye ; hind neck, sides of neck, and under surface of 

 body from the lower throat downwards, pure white, including 

 the under wing-coverts and axillaries, the lower greater coverts 

 tinged with silvery-grey like the quill-lining ; bill deep black ; 

 tarsi and toes orange-red ; iris dark brown. Total length, 12^5 

 inches; culmen, 1*2; wing, 10*4; tail, 37; tarsus, i'4. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male. Total length, 12-2 

 inches ; wing, io - o. 



Adult in Winter Plumage. Lacks the black head of the sum- 

 mer plumage, the crown being white, with some streaks of dusky- 

 grey towards the nape ; behind the eye a spot of greyish-black ; 

 tarsi and toes duller in colour. 



Young. Brown above, mottled with grey bases to the 

 feathers ; the crown of the head ashy-brown ; the forehead and 

 eyebrow white like the hind-neck ; sides of face white, with 

 a tinge of buff, which is found on the sides of the neck, 

 finishing on the chest ; a spot of black on the ear-coverts ; 

 \ving-coverts mostly blackish, with grey bases and fulvescent or 

 whitish tips ; the secondaries with sub-terminal black markings 

 of large size ; primary-coverts white, with broad longitudinal 

 centres of black; the primaries differing in markings from those 

 of the adults, the first one being black along both sides of the 

 shaft, the second having a little black along the middle of the 

 inside of the shaft ; on the third the black on the inside of the 

 shaft is almost absent, but with a good deal of white on the base 

 of the outer web ; tail white, with a broad sub-terminal band 

 of black. 



Characters. The chief characters for distinguishing Bona- 

 parte's Gull in the fully adult plumage are its black bill and 

 leaden-black hood. The differences in the young bird from 

 those of the other British species have been detailed under the 

 heading of the foregoing species. 



Range in Great Britain. Some half-dozen examples of this 

 North American species have been obtained within our limits. 

 The first recorded was one killed near Belfast, in Ireland, in 



