145 



FRANKLIN'S ROSY GULL. 



-I-Larus Franklinii, Richardson. 



(not figured.) 



The following account of this species by Dr. Richardson is taken from 

 the Fauna Boreali-Americana. 



"Franklin's Rosy Gull, with vermilion bill and feet; mantle pearl-grey; 

 five exterior quills broadly barred with black, the first one tipped with white 

 for an inch; tarsus twenty lines long; hood black in summer. 



"This is a very common Gull in the interior of the Fur Countries, where 

 it frequents the shores of the larger lakes. It is generally seen in flocks, and 

 is very noisy. It breeds in marshy places. Ord's description of his Black- 

 headed Gull (Wils. ix. p. 89.) corresponds with our specimens, except that 

 the conspicuous white end of the first quill is not noticed: the figure (PI. 

 74, fig. 4.) differs in the primaries being entirely black. The Prince of 

 Musignano gives the totally black primaries, and a tarsus nearly two inches 

 long, as part of the specific character of his Lanes Mricilla, to which he 

 refers Wilson's bird; though, in his Observations, he states that the adult 

 specimens have the primaries, with the exception of the first and second, 

 tipped with white. L. Franklinii cannot be referred either to the L. 

 Jltricilla or L. melanocephalas of M. Temminck: the first has a lead- 

 coloured hood and deep black quill-feathers, untipped by white; and the 

 black hood of the second does not descend lower on the throat than on the 

 nape; its quill-feathers are also differently marked, and its tarsus is longer. 

 His L. ridibundus and L. capistratus have brown heads, and the interior of 

 the wings grey; the latter has also a much smaller bill than our L. Frank- 

 linii. 



"Description of a male killed June 6, 1827, on the Saskatchewan. 



"Colour. — Both eyelids, the neck, rump, tail, and whole under plumage, 

 white, the latter and interior of the wings deeply tinged with peach-blossom 

 red. Black hood covering three-quarters of an inch of the nape, and 

 extending as much lower on the throat. Mantle and wings bluish-grey. 

 The outer web of the first quill-feather is black to near the tip, and a broad 

 band of the same crosses the ends of the five outer primaries; all the quill- 

 feathers are terminated with white, that on the first primary and of all the 



Vol. VII. 22 



