312 LAP.ID^, GULLS. GEN. 281-5. 



guisbable from the foregoing. Pacific Coast, common : breeding northerly ; 

 U. S. in winter. L. glaucescens and L. clialcojiterus (younger) Laavr. in 

 Bd., 842, 843; Coues, I. c. 295; Bonap., Consp. Av. ii, 216; Laroides 



glaucojjfenis Bruch glaucescens. 



II Primaries crossed with black (adult), or all black (young). 

 IM'- Great Black-backed Gull. Saddle-bach. Coffin-carrier. Cobb. Feet 

 flesh-colored; bill yellow with red spot. Mantle blackish slate-color; 1st 

 primary with the end white for 2-3 inches ; 2nd primary with a white sub- 

 apical spot, and, like the remaining ones that are crossed with black, having 

 the tip white (when not quite mature, the 1st with small white tip and sub- 

 apical spot, the 2nd with white tip alone) . In winter, head and neck streaked 

 with duskJ^ Young : whitish, variously washed, mottled and patched with 

 brown or dusky ; quills and tail l)lack, with or without white tips ; bill black. 

 Yery large; equalling or even exceeding L. glaucus. N. Atlantic; S. along 

 the U. S. coast in winter; Florida (Audubon). Nutt., ii, 308; AuD.,vii, 

 172, pi. 450; Lawe. in Bd., 844 marinus. 



Obs. L. fuscus, a European species bearing the same relation to ina.rimis that 

 leucoptenis does to glaucus, has been attributed to this couutrj', upon insufficient 

 evidence. Bonap., Synopsis U. S. Bu'ds, No. 298; Ndtt., ii, 302. 



,'l/'i Herring Gull. Common Gull. Feet flesh color; bill yellow with red 

 spot ; mantle pale dull blue (darker than in glaucus, but nothing like the 

 deep slate of marinus — ^mucli the same as in all the rest of the species) ; 

 primaries marked as in marinus (l)ut the great majority of specimens will be 

 found to have the not quite mature or final condition) ; length 22—27 ; wing 

 15-18; tarsus 2^-2| ; bill about 2J long, about |-f deep at the base, and 

 about the same at the protuberance. In winter : head and hind neck 

 streaked with dusk3^ Young: at first almost entirely fuscous or sooty- 

 brown, the feathers of the back and wings with paler edges ; bill black ; 

 quills and tail black, white-tipped or not; size at the minimum above given. 

 As it grows old, it gradually lightens ; the head, neck and under parts are 

 usually quite Avhitish, before the markings of the quills are app^u-ent, and 

 before the blue begins to show, as it does in patches, mixed with brown ; 

 the black on the tail narrows to a bar, at the time the primaries are assuming 

 their characters, but this bar disappears before the primaries gain their 

 perfect pattern. At one time the bill is flesh colored or yellowish, black- 

 tipped. The American bird proves to average larger than the European in 



(V all its parts, as observed in several other water-birds : whence L. smithsoni- 

 anus Coues, I. c. 296. N. Am., abundant, both coastwise and in the 

 interior, breeding northward, generally distributed at other seasons. L. 

 argentatoides Bonap., Syn. No. 229; Rich., F. B.-A. ii, 417. Nutt., 



% ii, 304; Aud., vii, 163, pi. 448; Lawe. in Bd., 844. . . aegentatus. 



(fc Var. occiDENTALis. Mantle notably darker, rather slaty-blue than grayish-blue ; 

 bill stouter, especially towards the end, the depth at the protuberance usually rather 

 greater than at the base; greatest depth -J; at the nostrils |. Pacific Coast, 

 abundant. Auo., vii, 161 ; Lawr. in I5n., 845 ; Coues, I. c. 296 ; Elliot, pi. 52. The 



