THE HERRING GULL. 5'li 



LAEUS ARGENTATUS. — Brtinmch. 



The Herring Gull ; the Silvery GuU. 



Larus argeniutus, Briinnich. Orn. Bor. (1764), 44. Nutt. Man., IL (1834) 304. 

 Aud. Birds Am., VIL (1844) 163. 



Desckiption. 



Adult. — Head, neck, under parts, rump, and tail, pure-white; back and wings 

 light pearl-blue; the first six primaries are marked towards their ends with black, 

 which begins on the first at about half its length from the end, and is rapidly les- 

 sened on the others until it becomes only a subterminal bar on the sixth; the pri- 

 maries all tipped with white; on the first quill it is about an incli and a half in 

 extent, crossed near the end with a black bar, on the second quill there is a round 

 white spot on the inner web near the end; secondaries and tertiaries broadly ending 

 with white; bill bright-j'ellow, with an orange-red spot near the end of the lower 

 mandible ; legs and feet flesh-colored ; iris white. 



Young. — Mottled with light graj'ish-brown and dull-white; primaries blackish- 

 brown; bill brownish-black, yellowish at the base. 



Length of male, twentj'-three inches; wing, eighteen; tail, seven and a lialf; bill, 

 along ridge, two and a half; depth at angle, thirteen-sixteenths ; tarsus, two and 

 a half. Female a little smaller than the male, but similar in plumage. 



Ilab. — Atlantic coast from Texas to Newfoundland; Western .States; Oiiio and 

 Mississippi Rivers. 



This species is abundant on our coast in the autumn, 

 winter, and until late in spring, and many individuals are 

 seen through the whole summer. I found several appar- 

 ently breeding about the Umbagog Lakes, in Maine ; and 

 have no doubt that it incubates in various localities in New 

 England, both on the coast and in the interior. It breeds 

 in the greatest abundance in Labrador and other northern 

 countries, where it nests like the preceding, and sometimes 

 in trees. The birds which I saw about Lake Umbagog prob- 

 ably had nests in trees, as they frequented a tract of dead 

 pines and hemlocks inaccessible to me on account of inun- 

 dation, and they frequently alighted in their tops. The 

 eggs of the Herring Gull are so different in form, color, and 

 markings, that hardly any description can be inteUigible. 

 A great number of specimens in my collection vary in 

 form from abruptly* ovate to a lengthened ovoidal. Their 

 color varies from a pale-cinereous to an olivaceous-drab ; 

 and their markings from thickly spattered blotcltes of 



