89 



BLACK-HEADED GULL. 

 LARUS RIDIBUNDUS. 

 [Plate LXXIV.— Fig. 4.] 



Li]^N. Syst. 225. — La Mouette rieuse, De Buff. XVI, p. 232. Ph enl. JS*o. 970.— La Moueite rkiise 

 a pattos rouges^ Briss. — Lath. Gen. Syn. Ill, pt. 2, p. 380.— Br. Zool. II, 252. Jlrct. Zool. JV*o. 

 454, 455. — Laughing Gull, Catesby, I, 89.— Win. Orn. p. 347. pi. 66. — Peivit, Black-cap, or 

 Sea-crow, Raii, Syn. p. 128, A. 5. — ^Bewick, II, 200.-— Peaie's Museum, JV'o. 3381. 



LENGTH seventeen inches, extent three feet six inches; bill^ 

 thighs, legs, feet, sides of the mouth and eyelids dark blood red; 

 inside of the mouth vermilion ; bill nearly two inches and a half 

 long; the nostril is placed rather low; the eyes are black; above 

 and below each eye there is a spot of white; the head and part of 

 the neck are black, remainder of the neck, breast, whole lower 

 parts, tail coverts and tail pure white; the scapulars, wing coverts 

 and whole upper parts are of a fine blue ash color ; the first five 

 primaries are black towards their extremities ; the secondaries are 

 tipt largely with white, and almost all the primaries slightly; the 

 bend of the wing is white, and nearly three inches long ; the tail 

 is almost even, it consists of twelve feathers, and its coverts reach 

 within an inch and a half of its tip; the wings extend two inches 

 beyond the tail; a delicate blush is perceivable on the breast and 

 bellv. 



The head of the female is of a dark dusky slate color, in 

 other respects she resembles the male. 



We are inclined to the opinion, that the three Gulls of La- 

 tham, viz. the Black-headed G. the Red-legged G. and the Laugh- 

 ing G. are one and the same species, the very bird which we have 

 been describing, the difference in their markings arising from their 



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