BIRDS — LARIDAE — PAGOPHILA, 855 
RISSA BREVIROSTRIS, Brandt, 
Tile snort-billed KitUwalse. 
" Rissa brevirostris, Brandt," Bhuch, Rev. Lar. in Cab. Jour. 1858, 285. 
Sp. Ch.— Resembles R. tridactyla very much, both in structure and figure, but witli the hind toe better formed ; bill yellow ; 
feet coral red. 
Hab. — Northwest coast of North America. 
No specimen in the collection. 
. The above is the substance of Bruch's description of this species. The type specimen he saw 
at St. Petersburg. 
Bonaparte (Consp. Av. II, 1857, 226) puts the name of this species as a synonym to 
brachyrhyncha, Gould, which he says is not L. niveus, Pall., and puts the latter species in 
Larus, differing from Bruch, and also G. B. Gray, who consider L. niveus, Pall., and L. 
brachyrhyncha, Gould, as identical. Bonaparte further differs from Bruch in making a new 
species, viz., Passa hotzebui, of " R. niveus, Pall., and brachyrhyncha, Gould/' No. 36 of Bruch's 
Monograph. These writers also vary materially in their views regarding other species ; but, as 
Mr. Bruch has made this family of birds his especial study, with apparently good opportunities 
for forming his opinions, I have chosen to follow him in enumerating the species now described 
as distinct. 
EISSA NIVEA, Bruch. 
The Yellow-billed Gull. 
Larus niveus, Pall. Zoogr. II, 1811, 320 ; pi. Ixxiv. 
Rissa nivea, Bruch, Cab. Jour. 1855, 285. 
? Larus brachyrhynchus, Gould, Pro. Zool. Soc. July, 1843. — Ib . Voy. Sulph. Birds, pi. xxxiv. 
Sp. Ch. — Mult. Head, neck, all the under surface, rump, up*per and under tail coverts, and tail, pure white ; back and 
wings, including the primaries, gray, passing into white at the tips of the scapulars, secondaries, and all but the first five 
primaries, which are thus marked ; the outer primary has its external web and three inches of the tip of the inner web deep 
black ; the next primary is tipped with black for three inches and a half on its outer, and two inches and a half on its inner web, 
and has a very minute speck of gray at the extreme tip ; the third primary is tipped with black for two inches, and has a small 
spot of gray at the extremity ; the fourth is tipped with black for an inch and a quarter, and has a larger spot of gray at the 
extremity than the third ; and the fifth is crossed by an irregular band of black near the tip three-quarters of an inch wide, the 
extiemity being gray, fading into white on the margin of the inner web ; bill primrose yellow ; feet orange yellow. 
Total length, 14 inches ; bill, H ; wing, 12 j ; tail, 5j ; tarsi, 1^. 
Hab. — Russian America. 
The above is Mr. Gould's account in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Sulphur. 
No specimen in the collection. 
PAGO I'll 1L A, Kaup. 
Pagophila, Kaup, Nat. Syst. der Eur. Thier. 1829. 
Ch — Bill short and stout, compressed ; the upper mandible straight at base, curved at the end ; nostrils linear and lateral ; 
wings long and pointed ; tail moderate and even ; tarsi strong and rather short ; toes strong, united by an indented web ; hind 
toe short. 
Found only in high northern latitudes, generally far out at sea; their food consists mostly of 
the flesh and blubber of cetaceous animals. 
But two species known, which are mainly remarkable for the purity and whiteness of their 
plumage. They inhabit the Arctic regions, and are of medium size. 
