142 GULL. 



tips, and part of the inner margins black ; on the three outer a small 

 white speck at the tip ; the others to the seventh marked also at the 

 end, but the white occupies more space; legs dusky yellow; the 

 wings exceed the tail in length one inch and a half. 



The above will perhaps be sufficiently descriptive, but as Colonel 

 Montagu has in his work been more explicit in his account of the 

 bird, we will refer the reader thereto. 



7— FORKED-TAILED GULL. 



Larus Sabini, Forked-tailed Gull, Lin. Trans, xii. p. 520. pi. 29. & 551. Parry's 



App. p. ccv. 

 Xeme Sabini, Ross, Voy. App. p. lvi. pi. in ditto. 



THIS species is in length from twelve and a half to fourteen 

 inches, and has about thirty-three inches in extent of wing ; weight 

 from six and a half to seven and a half ounces. The bill one inch, 

 black, with the end yellow ; inside of the month vermilion ; irides 

 dark, surrounded by a naked circle of vermilion, and a small white 

 speck beneath the eye, scarcely perceptible; head and upper part of 

 the neck dark ash lead-colour; the remainder of the neck, the breast, 

 and belly, pure white; a narrow black collar surrouuds the neck at 

 the meeting of the ash-colour and white; back, scapulars, and wing 

 coverts ash, very much lighter than the head, but darker than the 

 corresponding parts in the Laughing Gull ; the shafts of the first 

 prime quills black; outer webs the same; the edges of their upper 

 webs white to within one inch and a half of the tips, the white 

 sometimes continued to the point; the tips of the first and second quills 

 in some white, in others black ; those of the third, fourth, and fifth 

 white, giving, when the wing is closed, a spotted appearance ; the 

 sixth prime quill has a white shaft, with the web more or less black, 

 but principally white, with sometimes a black spot near the end; the 

 other primaries, secondaries, and tertials, white; the under part of the 

 wings wholly white ; feathers of the tail white, twelve in number, 



