LARIBM—LABIN^: GULLS. 743 



and encroaches a little on the upper. Edges of jaws bright vermilion. Palate and tongue pale 

 orange-red. , Eyelids vermilion. Iris pale lemon-yellow. Legs and feet pale flesh-color. 

 Mantle intense slate-color, nearly black, with a purplish reflection; secondaries and tertials 

 broadly tipped with white, the line of demarcation distinct. Primaries : first, black, scarcely 

 lighter at its base, its tip white for 2i inches, its shaft white inferiorly, and superiorly along the 

 white portion of the feather ; second, like the first, but its base lighter, the white tip less exten- 

 sive, and interrupted by a narrow bar of black on one or both webs ; third, fourth, fifth, broadly 

 tipped with white, their bases of a lighter shade of slate than the second, and fading into white 

 at the junction with the broad black subterminal band. Adult in winter : As in summer, but 

 the head and neck streaked with dusky. Young-of-the-year : As large as the adult ; the bill 

 as large, but not so strong, nor the eminence so well developed ; wholly black. Upper parts 

 whoUy dusky chocolate-brown, mottled with whitish and light rufous, the latter on the back 

 and wings, the feathers being tipped and the wing-coverts deeply indented with this color. 

 Under parts mottled with white or rufous-white and dusky, the throat mostly immaculate. 

 Primaries and tail deep brownish-black, the former tipped, subterminally barred, and its outer 

 feather mottled, with whitish. Dimensions: length 30.00 inches; extent 65.00; wing 19.00; 

 biU above 2.50; rictus 3.50; height at nostril 0.85; at angle 0.95 ; tarsus 3.00; middle toe 

 and claw slightly less. This great bird, the dark rival of the ioe-guU, inhabits the Atlantic 

 coasts of Europe and N. Am., ranging south coastwise in winter to Florida, breeding beyond 

 the U. S., especially in Labrador. Found on the larger inland waters as well as coastwise. 

 Nest on the ground, of moss and seaweed ; eggs 3, 3.90 X 3.15, pale drab or olive-gray, irreg- 

 ularly blotched with dark brown and blackish, with purplish or neutral-tint sheU-spots. 



772. li. argenta'tus. (Lat. argentatus, silvered, silvery.) European Herring Gull. Precisely 

 like the next to be described, excepting the following particulars : Average smaller size ; wing 

 averaging 1.50 inches shorter; feet about 0.50. shorter on an average; bill shorter and slenderer, 

 particularly at base. The 1st primary has usually a white terminal space 2 inches long ; the 

 2d a large rounded sub-terminal white spot, occupying both webs. The 1st primary of the 

 American bird has usually a rounded white subterminal spot much like that on the 2d primary 

 of the European, almost always separated fi'om the white apical spot, and if a spot is present 

 on the 2d primary it is small. A variety is predicable upon these average differences. Birds 

 typically like the European occur in N. Am., where the next is the ordinary " herring gull." 



773. li. a. smithsonia'nus. (To the S. I.) American Herring Gull. Adult : BiU rather less 

 than tarsus, shorter than head ; robust, its height at the angle slightly more than at the base. 

 Culmen nearly straight at the nostrUs ; then rapidly convex to the stout, deflected, overhanging 

 apex. Outline of rami slightly concave ; gonys about straight; eminence at symphysis large 

 and prominent, but its apex not very acute. Breeding plumage : Bill bright chrome, its tip 

 diaphanous , a vermilion spot at the angle, with sometimes a small black one just anterior to it. 

 Legs and ieet pale flesh'Color ; claws blackish. Mantle typical " guU-blue," much lighter than 

 in ocddentalis ; lighter than in brachyrhynchus ; of much the same shade as in deUmvarensis or 

 glaueescens; darker than in glaucus or leucopterus. The bases of the primaries are the same 

 as the back, or very slightly lighter, not so light, nor of so great extent (being exceedingly 

 short on the first primary), nor so broad at the end, as in californicus. On the first primary 

 this light basal portion is very short, hardly reaching within six or seven inches of the tip of 

 the primary. It is not lighter at its junction with the black, nor does it extend further on the 

 central portion than on the edge of the feather. On the second, third, and fourth primaries the 

 bluish of the basal portions of the feather extends about the same distance on each (within 

 four inches of the tip of the second), and runs up further on the centres of the feathers than on 

 their edges, and grows nearly white at its junction with the black portion of the feathers. 

 First primary with a subapical white spot near its tip ; small, rounded, not much over an inch 

 in diameter ; generally not longer on the outer vane than on the inner; sometimes wanting on 



