Franklin’s Gull 19 
faint rosy tinge on the breast fading after death ; three outer primaries 
black, the fourth and fifth black toward the end, all but the first 
usually with a small apical spot; iris blackish, eyelids and bill 
carmine, feet dusky red. Length 16°50 ; wing 13-0; tail 5-0 ; tarsus 2:0 ; 
culmen 1-75. 
In winter there is no hood, and the head is white with a little blackish, 
and the breast has no rosy tinge; bill and feet dusky. Young birds 
are mottled with greyish and brown above, the tail has a broad sub- 
terminal band of blackish-brown, and the quills are the same colour ; 
upper tail-coverts white. 
Distribution.—Breeding chiefly on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts 
from Maine to Texas, and on the Pacific coast of Mexico; in winter 
to the West Indies and northern South America as far as the Amazons 
and Peru ; rare inland. 
This Gull has been reported from Fort Lyon by Captain Thorne 
(Morrison), while H. G. Smith identified an example killed at Sloans 
Lake, in the western, suburbs of Denver, in December, 1889. These 
are the only recorded occurrences in Colorado. 
Franklin’s Gull. Larus franklini. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 59—Colorado Records—Cooke 97, pp. 19, 51; 
Felger 09, p. 278; Hersey & Rockwell 09, p. 110. 
Description.—Adult—Head all round slaty-black with » white ring 
round and chiefly behind the eye; mantle slaty-grey, nearly greyish- 
blue ; rest of the plumage, except the quills, white tinged with rosy- 
pink on the breast; first primary chiefly white on the inner and 
tip of the outer web, dusky slate on the outer web, and with a rounded 
black spot on the inner web about 1-25 inches from the tip ; the next 
four slaty, paling to white at the tip and crossed by a subterminal 
band of black; eyelids orange, bill red with « darker subterminal 
band ; legs dusky red. Length 13:5; wing 11:25; tail 4:0; culmen 
1:25; tarsus 1-70. 
In winter the hood is absent, the head is white with a few dusky 
feathers and the breast has no rosy tinge. Young birds have the 
top and sides of the head and back greyish-brown, the quills dusky 
tipped with white, and the tail with «4 subterminal band of dusky ; 
forehead, eye-spot and under-parts white. 
Distribution.—Breeding in the interior of North America from Iowa 
northwards to Manitoba and the interior of the Dominion ; south on 
migration from the Mississippi Valley to Utah, wintering in Mexico 
and Central America and as far south as Peru. 
Though quite a common, bird on, migration, both in Kansas and 
Utah, Franklin’s Gull is hardly known from Colorado. In fact the 
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