( i6 ) 



ORD. III. GENUS III. GULL. 



Bill, ftrong, ftraight, but bending down at the point : on the under part of the lower 



mandible an angular prominency. 

 Nostrils, oblong, narrow, and placed in the middle of the bill. 

 Tongof, a little cloven. 

 Body, light. Wings, long. 

 Legs, fmall, and naked above the knees : back toe, fmall. 



SPECIES I. ARCTIC GULL. 



PL 208, 



Laras parafiticus. Lin. Syji. I. p. 2,2,6. 



Le Stercoraire. Br'if. Orn. VI. p. 150. The female. 



a longue queue. lb. p. 155. The male. 



I cannot conceive this bird to be in the leaft related to the gulls : however, as authors 

 have claffed it with them, I have not ventured to make it a diftincvt genus, but have 

 placed it at the head of the gulls, as the link between them and the terns. It is rather 

 larger than the Sandwich tern, being twenty-one inches in length, and weighing about 

 eight or nine ounces. The bill is fhort, thick, and hooked, black at the tip, the reft 

 lead colour ; from the bafe it is covered with a kind of cere : noftrils, narrow, and placed 

 near the end of the cere : crown and forepart of the head, black : back, wings, and tail, 

 dark lead-colour: lower part of the inner webs of the quill-feathers, white; as are the 

 neck and breaft ; the upper part of the neck behind having a yellowifh or rufty tinge : 

 the two middle feathers of the tail are four inches longer than the reft, and pointed, fo as 

 to form a fork: the legs, black, and fmall, as in the tern. 



The female is entirely brown, but paler below than on the upper parts ; and the two 

 middle feathers of the tail do not exceed the others in length above two inches. 



Thefe birds are plentiful in the northern parts of England and Scotland. They fre- 

 quently purfue the terns, till they make them drop the fifli they have caught, which 

 thefe gulls catch as they fall. They lay two or three eggs, on the ground, near the fea. 

 See PI. XLV. Fig 1. 



