NATATORES. 417 



Dimensions 

 Of the old bird. 



Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. 



Length, total . 29 Length of bill to rictus . 4 Length of middle nail . 6 \ 



„ of tail . . 10 ,, from nostrils to tip 13 „ of hind toe and nail 54 



„ of wing 19 ,, of tarsus ..30 Extent of wing . . 02 



„ of bill above .30 „ of middle toe . 2 6^ Height of bill at the gonys 10£ 



— R. 



[182.] 2. Larus argentatoides. (Bonap.*) Arctic Silvery Gull. 



Genus, Larus, Linn. 



Larus argentatus. Richards. Append. Parry's Second Voy., p. 358, No. 22. 



Larus argentatoides. Bonap. Syn., No. 299. 



Nooya. Esquimaux. 



The Prince of Musignano has distinguished this Gull from Lanes 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. The eggs that were 

 brought home have an oil-green colour, marked with spots and blotches of 

 blackish-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 argentatus as characterized by the Prince of Musignano. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a male, in the Ed. Mus., 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. Irides 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. 



* The Prince of Musignano doubts whether his bird be the same with Brehm's L. argentatoides, and we have no 

 means of deciding the point. — R. 



3 H 



