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FRANKLIN'S ROSY GULL. 



Larus Franklinii, Richardson. 



The following account of this species by Dr Richardson is taken 

 from the Fauna Boreali-Americana. 



Larus Franklinii, Richards. Franklin's Rosy Gull, Richards, and Swains. 

 Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 424. 



" Franklin's Rosy Gull, with vermilion bill and feet ; mantle pearl- 

 grey ; five exterior quills broadly barred with black, |;he first one tip- 

 ped with white for an inch ; tarsus twenty lines long ; hood black in 

 summer. 



" This is a very common Gull in the interior of the Fur Countries, 

 where it frequents the shores of the larger lakes. It is generally seen 

 in flocks, and is very noisy. It breeds in mai'shy places. Ord's de- 

 scription of his Black-headed Gull (Wils. ix. p. 89.) corresponds with 

 our specimens, except that the conspicuous white end of the first quill 

 is not noticed : the figure (PI. 74, fig. 4.) differs in the primaries being 

 entirely black. The Prince of Musignano gives the totally black pri- 

 maries, and a tarsus nearly two inches long, as part of the specific 

 character of his Larus Atricilla, to which he refers Wilson's bird ; 

 though, in his Observations, he states that the adult specimens have the 

 primaries, with the exception of the first and second, tipped with white. 

 L. FranJcUnii cannot be referred either to the L. Atricilla or L. mela- 

 nocephalus of M. Temminck : the first has a lead-coloured hood and deep 

 black quill- feathers, untipped by white ; and the black hood of the se- 

 cond does not descend lower on the throat than on the nape ; its quill- 

 feathers are also differently marked, and its tarsus is longer. His L. 

 ridihimdus and L. capistratus have brown heads, and the interior of the 

 wings grey ; the latter has also a much smaller bill than our L. Frank- 

 linii. 



" Description of a male killed, June 6. 1827, on the Saskatchewan. 



" Colour. — Both eyelids, the neck, rump, tail, and whole under plu- 

 mage, white, the latter and interior of the wings deeply tinged with 

 peach-blossom red. Black hood covering three-quarters of an inch of 



