NATATORES. 433 



[196.] 3. Lestris Richardsonii. (Swains.) Richardson's Jager. 



Genus, Lestris, Illig. 



Ch. Sp. Lestris Richardsonii, sub-concolor, rectrieibus mediis abrupte acuminatis, tarsis nigris poslice asperiz 



viginti-duas lineas longis. 

 Sp. Ch. Richardson's Jager, whole plumage brown, two middle tail feathers abruptly acuminated, tarsi black, 



twenty-two lines long. 



Plate lxxiii. 



This specimen appears to us to be in full and mature plumage ; we cannot, 

 therefore, view it as the young or even as the female of the Lestris Buffonii of 

 Boie, which we only know from the characters assigned to it by the Prince of 

 Musignano*. According to this account, the L. Buffonii has the bill an inch and 

 a quarter long from the front ; ours is only an inch : the tarsi are described as 

 almost smooth ; whereas in ours they are particularly rough. The adult, as 

 figured in plate 762 of the PL Enl., has the chin, throat, and sides of the neck 

 quite white ; but in our bird these parts are of the same pure and decided tint 

 as that of the body, except that the ear feathers, and a few lower down the neck, 

 have a slight tinge of ochre. The tarsi also, in both the plates cited by the 

 Prince, are coloured yellow. These differences, with the more important one 

 exhibited in the feet, will not permit us to join these birds under one name. 

 Another distinction, which must not be overlooked, is in the colour of the feet. 

 Edwards expressly says of his " Arctic Bird," (pi. 149) (which much more 

 resembles ours than that figured on the plate immediately preceding,) that " the 

 legs and toes are all yellow ;" whereas in our bird these members are of a deep 

 and shining black ; while the hinder parts of the tarsi, toes, and connecting 

 membrane, are particularly rough. — Sw. 



This Jager breeds in considerable numbers in the Barren Grounds at a distance 

 from the coast. It feeds on shelly mollusca, which are plentiful in the small 

 lakes of the fur-countries ; and it harasses the Gulls in the same way with others 

 of the genus. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a specimen killed at Fort Franklin, lat. Gb\° N. 



Colour. — Upper plumage deep blackish- brown, back of the neck paler; quills and tail 

 pitch-black ; the shafts of the primaries and of the central tail feathers white to near the tips. 



* " Lestris Buffonii (Boie). Bill one inch and a quarter from the front, straight, notched; middle tail fea- 

 thers gradually tapering, narrow for several inches, ending in a point ; tarsus one inch and a half long, almost smooth. 

 — Adult brown ; neck and beneath white, the former tinged with yellow. — Young wholly brownish." 



"Arctic Bird, Edw., pi. 148 ; Buff. PL Enl. 762. Lestris crepidata, Brehm."— Bonap. Syn., No. 306- 



3 K 



