The Franklin Gull 



Taken in Washington 



cohort in training; but if 

 so, I could not discern his 

 epaulets nor mark his 

 shouted orders. 



The Short-billed Gull 

 returns to Alaska in May, 

 at which season, according 

 to Mr. Nelson, its soft 

 white plumage is shaded 

 with a delicate rose-color. 

 "It is a marsh-loving spe- 

 cies, and is rarely found 

 near the bold promontories 

 and capes which delight 

 the Kittiwakes. Frequent- 

 ing all the flat marshy 

 country of the coast and 

 interior, they are found 

 nesting from the peninsula of Alaska north to the head of Kotzebue 

 Sound, and from this sea-coast region they breed interiorly over Alaska 

 and northern British America." 



Photo by the A nlhor 



SHORT-BILLED GULLS IN HARBOR 



No. 279 



Franklin's Gull 



A. O. U. No. 59. Chroicocephalus franklini (Swainson and Richardson). 



Description. — Adults in summer (sexes alike). — Head and upper portion of 

 neck plain slate-blackish or dusky purplish gray, more slaty anteriorly; an elongated 

 white spot on each eyelid; lower neck (all around), entire underparts, lower rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts immaculate white, the neck and underparts more or less deeply 

 suffused with eosine pink, especially in living or recently killed specimens; back, 

 scapulars, wings, and upper part of rump uniform neutral gray, the tertials and second- 

 aries broadly tipped with white; five outer primaries with a subterminal space of 

 black, varying in extent from about 50 mm. on the second (from outside) to about 12.5 

 mm. on the fifth, and tipped with white, these white tips varying in extent from about 

 38 mm. on the outermost to less than 12 mm. on the rest, the gray of basal portion on 

 all becoming white or nearly so distally, next to the black subterminal area, the shafts 

 white except within the latter; remaining (proximal) primaries lighter gray, broadly, 

 but not abruptly, tipped with white, the sixth (from outside) sometimes with a sub- 

 terminal bar or spot of black; tail white, the four to six middle rectrices tinged with 

 pale gray, especially the middle pair; bill deep red with a more or less distinct subter- 



1420 



