LAUGHING GULL. 117 
breast, whole lower parts, tail-coverts and tail, pure white ; 
the scapulars, wing-coverts, and whole upper parts are of a 
7. L. tridactylus, Linn.—Kittiewake, Wilson’s List.—Inhabiting both con- 
tinents. 
8. Z. canus, Linn.—Common Gull, Wilson’s List.—Inhabiting both conti- 
nents, and numerous during winter in the middle States of America, 
9. L. eburneus, Gmel.—Inhabits the arctic circle; migrating occasionally 
to the temperate regions. A few specimens have been killed in Britain. 
10. L. fuscus, Linn.—Very common during winter near Philadelphia and 
New York. 
11. LZ. argentatoides, Brehm.—This bird is separated from Larus argentatus 
by Bonaparte, who mentions having shot it on the southern coasts of 
England. At the same time that he separates it from the herring-gull, 
he expresses a doubt of its being the Z. argentatoides of Brehm. This I 
cannot at present decide, but have appended, without any abridgment, the 
observations and description of a bird referred to this, from the ‘* Northern 
Zoology ;” it is very closely allied, at all events, tothe Z. argentatus ; and 
it is of importance that the characters of a species said to be killed on our 
coasts should be properly investigated. 
Larus argentatoides,—Arctie Silvery Gull. 
**Tarus argentatus, Richards. Append. Parry’s Second Voy., p. 358, No. 22.— 
Larus argentatoides, Bonap. Syn., No. 299.—Novya, Esquimaux. 
**The Prince of Musignano has distinguished this gull from Larus argentatus, 
with which it had been confounded by most other writers. It is impossible, 
therefore, to separate its history, or to cite the descriptions of other authors 
correctly. It was found breeding on Melville Peninsula; and the eggs that were 
brought home have an oil-green colour, marked with spots and blotches of black- 
ish brown and subdued purplish grey. It preys much on fish, and is noted at 
Hudson’s Bay for robbing the nets set in the fresh-water lakes. I have seen no 
specimens from Arctic America which I can unequivocally refer to the Larus 
aryentatus, as characterised by the Prince of Musignano.” 
Description of a Male in the Edinburgh Museum, killed on Melville 
Peninsula, June 29, 1822. 
“*Colour, mantle pearl grey. Six outer quills crossed by a brownish-black band, 
which takes in nearly the whole of the first one, but becoming rapidly narrower 
on the others, terminates in a spot near the tip of the sixth. The first quill has 
a white tip an inch and a half long, marked interiorly with a brown spot; the 
second has a round white spot on its inner web, and, together with the rest of the 
quill-feathers, is tipped with white. Head, neck, rump, tail, and all the under 
plumage, pure white. Bill, wine-yellow, with an orange-coloured spot near the 
tip of the under mandible. Ivrides, primrose-yellow. Legs, flesh-coloured. 
‘‘Form.—Bill moderately strong, compressed ; upper mandible, arched from 
the nostrils; nostrils, oblong oval ; wings, about an inch longer than the tail ; 
thighs, naked for three-quarters of an inch; hind toe, articulated rather high. 
“The young have the upper plumage hair-brown, with reddish brown borders ; 
the head and under plumage, grey, thickly spotted with pale brown; the tail 
mostly brown, tipped with white. 
