54 journal and proceedings 



Order LONGIPENNES. Long-winged Swimmers. 



Family STERCORARIIDiE. Skuas and Jaegers. 

 n STERCORARIUS POMARINUS (Temm.). 36 . 

 Pomarine Jaeger. • 



Middle tail feathers finally- projecting about four inches, broad to the tip. 

 Length, about 20 inches ; wing, 14; bill, i^— if ; tarsus about 2. Adult: — 

 Back, wings, tail, crissum and lower belly brownish-black ; below from bill 

 to belly, and neck all round, pure white, excepting accuminate feathers of 

 sides of neck, which are pale yellow ; quills whitish basally, their shafts 

 largely white ; tarsi above blue, below, with the toes and webs black. Not 

 quite adult: — As before, but breast with dark spots, sides of the body with 

 dark bars, blackish of lower belly interrupted ; feet black. Younger: — Whole 

 under parts, with upper wings and tail-coverts variously marked with white 

 and dark ; feet blotched with yellow. Fo2/k^;— Whole plumage transversely 

 barred with dark-brown and rufous : feet mostly 5'ellow. Dusky stage (com- 

 ing next after the barred plumage just given ?) ; fuliginous, unicolor ; blackish- 

 brown all over, quite black on the head, rather sooty-brown on the belly ; 

 sides of the neck slightly shaded with yellow. 



Hab. Seas and inland waters of northern portion of the Northern hem- 

 isphere ; chiefly maritime. South in North America to the Great Lakes and 

 New Jersey. 



Eggs two or three, grayish-olive with black spots. 

 The Pomarine Skua is occasional!}^ seen in company with 

 the large gulls which spend a short time during the severity of 

 winter around the west end of Lake Ontario, following the fish- 

 ing boats and picking up such loose fish as are shaken out of 

 the nets. It is spoken of by the Fishermen as a bird of a most 

 overbearing, tyranical disposition, one which they would gladly 

 punish, but on these trying trips all. hands are occupied with 

 matters of too much importance, to think of shooting gulls. 



Family LARID^E. Gulls and Terns. 



Subfamily LARIN^. Gulls. 



Genus GAVIA Boie. 



12 GAVIA ALBA (Gunn). 39 



Ivory Gull. 



Adult male : — Pure white all over; quills of the primaries yellow, feet 

 and legs black, bill dull greenish ; yellow at the tip. Young, plumage clouded 



