752 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — LONGIPENNES—GAVI^. 



narrow, and li;ilf posterior to the eye. Mantle pearl-blue, much lighter than in franTclmi. 

 Ends (if the tertials and scapulars scarcely lighter than the hack. Primaries : shafts of the 

 first five or six M'liite, except at their extreme tips, the others dark-colored ; first, outer web 

 and extreme tip black, rest white; second, white, its tip black for a greater distance than the 

 first, and on one or botli webs, for a greater or less distance (sometimes half M'ay do\TO the 

 feather) narrowly bordered with black ; third, fourth, fifth, sixtli, black at the ends for about 

 the same distance on each, the black bordering the inner web much further than the outer ; 

 the inner webs of the third and fourth, and both webs of the fifth and sixth, of a rather lighter 

 shade of the color of the back. Other primaries like the back, the seventh and eighth with 

 a touch of black on one or botli webs near tlie tip. The third to sixth primaries with a white 

 or pearly-wiiite speck at extreme tip. As is not the case with eitlier of our other species of 

 the genus, the ]irimary wing-coverts, bastard quills, etc., are wholly or in great part white, 

 causing the wliole wing to be bordered with white as far as the carpus. Neck all around, 

 and under parts, including under wing-coverts, pure white ; the belly rosy in breeding time. 

 No difference in color between the sexes. Adult, winter plumage : Bill light colored at base 

 below; feet flesh-color. Crescent before the eye, and patch below the auriculars, deep slate. 

 CroATO and occiput mottled with grayisli-black and white. Back of neck waslied over with 

 the color of the mantle. Forehead, sides of tlie head and throat, white, continuous with the 

 white of the under parts. Young, first winter : Bill dusky flesh-color, except toward the 

 end ; legs and feet light flesh-color. * Without the slaty mottling of the crovra. Auricular 

 patch distinct. Lesser wing-coverts and tertials dusky-brown, lighter along their edges. 

 Secondaries witli a patcli of dusky near the end, whicli on the innermost three or four becomes 

 restricted to the outer web. First primary, with about lialf tlie inner web along the shaft, 

 black ; second and third with the outer webs wholly black, and a narrow line of black on 

 the inner, along the shaft. Tail Avith a subterminal brownish-black bar. Very young : Bill 

 flesh-color, dusky on the terminal half. Crown of head, and neck beliind to tlie interscapulars, 

 clouded ^vitll duslcy bluisli-gray, heightening on the sides of the neck into light grayish- 

 oclireous. Scapulars and middle of the back Ught gull-blue, as in the adult, but the feathers so 

 broadly (for i inch) tipped witli grayisli-brown, fading into dull white at tip, tliat the original 

 color is nearly lost. Lesser wing-coverts and tertials brownisli-black, the latter edged with 

 the color of the edgings of the back. Bastard quills and feathers along the edge of the wing 

 variegated with black and white. Primaries black ; the outer two-thirds of the inner vane 

 of the first four bluish-white to near the end ; botli vanes of the others of that color for a little 

 distance ; the extreme tips of all but the two flrst, white. Secondaries light gull-blue, each 

 with a large terminal blackisli spot continuous with the black ends of the inner primaries. 

 Tail with a broad terminal bar of black, and very narrowly tipped with dull white. Dimen- 

 sions : Length 14.00 inches ; extent 32.00; wing 10.25; biU above, 1.20; gape 1.75 ; height 

 at nostrils 0.25 ; tarsus, or middle toe and claw, 1.40. N. Am. at large, both coastwise and 

 in the interior, migrating through and wintering in the U. S., breeding in high latitudes; 

 abundant; especially numerous along the Atlantic coast during the migrations ; accidental in 

 Europe. One of tlie most airy, graceful, and elegant of the family. Eggs rare and scarcely 

 known; one has been described as 1.80X1.30, ohvo-gray, with a close wreath of very 

 dark and lighter brown splashes around the larger end, and other scratches and spots of the 

 same scattered over the whole surface. In the interior this species and the last may often be 

 seen winnowing over ploughed land, probably after earth-worms. 

 312. RHODOSTE'THIA. (Gr. poSoc, fcw7on, the rose ; orij^os, steWiOS, the breast.) Wedgb- 

 TAIL Gull. Tail cuneate (here only among LaridcB). Otherwise, form much as in other 

 small gulls ; bill weak and slender, with little salience of the angle ; wings folding beyond 

 the tail. No colored hood, but a black collar round neck. Under plumage blossoming in 

 breeding season. 



