i-^ 



LAEID^, GULLS. GEN. 281-5. 315 



Short-billed Klttiwalce. Ited-lerj(je(l K'Miwalce. Bill very short, stout, 

 wide and deep at the base, with very convex culmen ; its color deoA- yelloio; 

 feet coral-red, drying yellow; tarsus only about two-thirds as long as the 

 middle toe and claw ; hind toe very small (little if any larger than in an 

 Atlantic kittiwake, smaller than in the best marked var. hotzebui), its rudi- 

 mentary claw showing as a little black speck. I do not know the young 

 bird, in which the color of the bill and feet is probaltly materially different. 

 Adult with the mantle leaden-gray, much darker than in the common kitti- 

 wake ; pattern of the primaries essentially the same as in that species. Wing 

 13; bill l^-lj, its depth at base J, at angle little less; tarsus IJ ; middle 

 toe and claw nearly 2. North Pacific Coast, abundant. This is unques- 

 tionably a different bird from the foregoing, and in adult plumage it would 

 seem impossible to mistake it. Here belong the following names : — 

 liissa brevirostrls Brandt; Lawr. in Bd., 855; Dall and Bann., Trans. 

 Chicago Acad, i, 305 (breeding by thousands about St. George's, Alaska) ; 

 Lartis brachyrhynchus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1843, p. , and Zool. Voy. 

 Sulphur, 50, pi. 34; liissa brackyr/iyncha Bonap., Consp. Av. ii, 226; 

 CouES, Proc. Phila. Acad. 1862, 306 ; B. brevirostrls and JR. nivea Lawr. in 

 Bd., 855 ; It. nivea Elliot, pi. 54 (not Larus niveus Pall.) . brevirostris. 



B. vSpecies of medium to smallest size, of less robust form and slenderer bill 

 than most of the foregoiug ; in the breeding season tJie white of the under jmrts 

 rosy-tinted, and the head enveloped in a dark-colored hood. {Chroscocepliahis.) 



^"6 -'"^ Blaclc-headed, or Laugldng Gull. Tarsus one-fourth longer than middle 

 toe and claw. Large; 16-19 ; wing 12-13 ; tarsus 2 ; middle toe and claw 

 IJ ; bill about 1|, the tip elongated and decurved, so that the point comes 

 down nearly or quite to the level of the 

 small, acute prominence of the gonys. 

 Mantle grayish-plumbeous ; hood dark 

 plumbeous ; eyelids white ; black on 

 pi'imaries taking in nearly all the 1st 

 quill, but rapidly decreasing to the 6th ; 

 the white tips very small, few, or want- 

 ing ; bill and feet dusky carmine. In rro. 200. Bin of Biack-iieaded Guu. 

 winter : not rosy, and unhooded ; head white, with dusky or grayish patches 

 on the nape and auriculars. Young: quite brown, paler, grayish or whitish 

 below and on the upper tail coverts ; feathers of the back dark with paler 

 edges ; quills and tail black, or latter white or partly grayish-blue, with a 

 black bar; bill and feet dusky or brownish. United States, chiefly coast- 

 wise, breeding northward to Bay of Fundy {Boardman) , but more abund- 

 antly southward ; extremely numerous along the South Atlantic coast. 

 New Mexico and Arizona ( Coues) ; Pacific Coast (^Xantus) . Larus 

 ridibundus Wjls., ix, 89, pi. 74, f. 4 ; i. atricilla Nutt., ii, 291: Aud., 



vii, 136, pi. 443 ; Lawr. in Bd., 850 atricilla. 



i'Y''i'' I^ranklin's Rosy Gidl. Tarsus about equal to the middle toe and claw. 

 Medium; 14-16; wing about 11; bill 1J-1J-; tarsus 1§ ; bill and feet 



