pad eS ees Ss 
654 BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
each eye there is a spot of white; the head and part of the neck are 
black, remainder of the neck, breast, whole lower parts, tail-coverts, 
which it had been confounded by most other writers. It is impossible, therefore, to separate 
its history, or to cite the descriptions of other authors correctly. It was found breeding on 
Melville Peninsula ; and the eggs that were brought home have am oil green color, marked 
with spots and blotches of blackish brown and subdued purplish gray. Jt preys much on 
fish, and is noted at Hudsou’s Bay for robbing the nets set in the fresh-water lakes, I have 
seen no specimens from Arctic America wh:ch I can unequivocally refer to the Larus ar- 
gentatus, as characterized by the Prince of Musignano.” 
Description of a Male, in the Edin. Museum, killed on Melville Peninsula, 
June 9, 1822. 
“ Color, mantle, pearl gray. Six outer «uills crossed by a brownish black band, which 
takes in nearly the whale of the tirst one, but becoming rapidly narrower on the others, 
terminates in a spot near the tip of the sixth. The first quill has a white tip an inch 
and a half long, marked interiorly with a brown spot; the second has a round white spot 
on its inner web, and, together with the rest of the quill-feathers, is tipped with white. 
Head, neck, rump, tail, and all the under plumage pure white. Bill, wine yellow, with 
an orange colored spot near the tip of the under mandible. rides, primrose yellow. Legs, 
flesh colored. 
Form. — Bill, moderately strong, compressed ; upper mandible, arched from the nostrils ; 
nostrils, oblong oval; wings, about an inch longer than the tail; thighs, naked for three 
quarters of an inch; hind toe, articulated rather high. 
The young have the upper plumage hair-brown, with reddish brown borders ; the head 
and under plumage, gray, thickly spotted with pale brown; the tail, mostly brown, tipped 
with white. 
Dimensions. — Length, total, 23 inches ; of tail, 7 inches, 3 lin. ; of wing, 16 inches, 6 
lin. ; of bill above, 2 inches; of billto rictus, 3 inches; from nostrils to tip, 11 lin. ; of 
nostrils, 44 lin. ; of tursus, 2 inches, 4} lin. ; of middle toe, 2 inches, 1 lin. ; of middle nail, 
5 lin. ; of inner toe, 1 inch, 6 lin. ; of inner nail, 4lin.; of hind toe, 3 lin. ; length of hind 
nail, 2% lines. 
Six individuals, killed on Melville Peninsula, in June, July, and September, varied in 
total length from 23 to 25 inches, and in the length of their tarsi, from 27 to 31 lines. 
Bonaparte thus gives the distinctive characters of the two species : — 
ZL. argentatordes. — Back and wings, bluish gray ; quills, black at the point, tipped with 
white, reaching but little beyond the tail; shafts, black first primary, broadly white at 
tip ; second, with a round white spot besides ; tarsus, less than two and a half inches ; nos- 
trils, oval ; length, twenty inches. 
L. argentatus. — Mantle, bluish gray ; quills, black at the point, tipped with white, reach- 
ing much beyond the tail ; shafts, black ; first primary only, with a white spot besides the 
narrow tip; tarsus, nearly three inches; nostrils, linear; length, two feet. They are 
closely allied, and may at once be distinguished by the size.”’ 
12, L. argentatus, Brunn. — Herring Gull, Wilson’s List. — Common to both continents, 
and not uncommon near New York and Philadelphia. 
13. L. leucopterus, Faber. — Inhabiting the Arctic circle, whence it migrates in winter 
to the Boreal regions of both continents, advancing farther south in America; not 
rare in the Northern and Middle States. 
14. LZ. glaucus, Brunn.—Inhabiting the Arctic regions, and exceedingly rare in the 
United States. 
15. L. marinus, Linn. — Black-backed Gull, Wilson’s List.—Not uncommon during 
winter in the Middle States. 
16. L. zonerhynchus, Richard. — Ring-billed Mew Gull. A new species, described in 
Northern Zoology. — Bill, ringed rather longer than the tarsus, which measures two 
and a half inches ; mantle, pear! gray ; ends of the quills and their shafis, blackish ; 
a short white space on the two exterior ones. 
17 LZ, backyrhynchus, Richard. —Short-billed Mew Gull. Another species descrie 
as new inthe Northern Zoology. — From the description of the present bird, copied 
from that work, it will be seen that the authors themselves are not decided in their 
opinions as to the absolute distinction of this and the preceding from ZL. canus, and T 
have placed them here for the same reason that they are admitted into that valuable 
work. Itis not unlikely that they. or at least the same varicties, may be discov- 
ered on our own coasts. 
“ Short-billed Mew Gull, with a short, tnickish bill; a tarsus scarcely two inches long : 
quills, not tipped with white ; a short white space on the exterior ones, and blackish 
shafts.” 
“Our specimen of this Gull is a female, killed on the 23d of May, 1826, at Great Bear 
Lake. Sone brown markings on the tertiuries, primary coverts, and bastard wing, with an 
