LABID^ — LARINJS : GULLS. 
743 
and encroaches a little on the upper. Edges of javi'^s bright vermilion. Palate and tongue pale 
orange-red. Eyelids vermilion. Iris pale lemon-yellow. Legs and feet pale iiesh-color. 
Mantle intense slate-color, nearly black, with a purplish reflection; secondaries and tertials 
broadly tipped with white, the line of demarcation distinct. Primaries : first, black, scarcely 
lighter at its base, its tip white for 2i inches, its shaft white inferiorly, and superiorly along the 
white portion of the feather ; second, like the first, but its base lighter, the wliite tip less exten- 
sive, and interrupted by a narrow bar of black on one or both webs ; third, fourth, fifth, broadly 
tipped with white, their bases of a lighter shade of slate than the second, and fading into white 
at the junction with the broad blaclc subterminal band. Adult in winter : As in summer, but 
the head and neck streaked with dusky. Young-of-the-year : As large as the adult ; the bill 
as large, but not so strong, nor the eminence so well developed ; wholly black. Upper parts 
wholly dusky chocolate -brown, mottled with whitish and light rufous, the latter on the back 
and wings, the feathers being tipped and the wing-coverts deeply indented with this color. 
Under parts mottled with white or rufous-white and dusky, the throat mostly immaculate. 
Primaries and tail deep brownish -black, the former tipped, subterminally barred, and its outer 
feather mottled, with whitish. Dimensions: length 30.00 inches; extent 65.00; wing 19.00; 
bill above 2.50; rictus 3.50; height at nostril 0.85; at angle 0.95 ; tarsus 3.00; middle toe 
and claw slightly less. This great bird, the dark rival of the ice-gull, inhabits the Atlantic 
coasts of Europe and N. Am., ranging south coastwise in winter to Florida, breeding beyond 
the U. S., especially in Labrador. Found on the larger inland waters as well as coastwise. 
Nest on the ground, of moss and seaweed; eggs 3, 2.90 X 2.15, pale drab or olive-gray, irreg- 
ularly blotched with dark brown and blackish, with purplish or neutral-tint shell-spots. 
7T2. argenta'tus. (Lat. argentatus, silvered, silvery.) European Herring Gull. Precisely 
like the next to be described, excepting the following particulars : Average smaller size ; wing 
averaging 1.50 inches shorter; feet about 0.50 shorter on an average; bill shorter and slenderer, 
particularly at base. The 1st primary has usually a white terminal space 2 inches long ; the 
2d a large rounded sub-terminal M^iite spot, occupying both webs. The 1st primary of the 
American bird has usually a rounded white subterminal spot much like that on the 2d primary 
of the European, almost always separated from the white apical spot, and if a spot is present 
on the 2d primary it is small. A variety is predicable upon these average differences. Birds 
typically like the European occur in N. Am., where the next is the ordinary "herring gull." 
773. L. a. smithsonia'nus. (To the S. I.) American Herring Gull. Adult : Bill rather less 
than tarsus, shorter than head ; robust, its height at the angle slightly more than at the base. 
Culmen nearly straight at the nostrils ; then rapidly convex to the stout, deflected, overhanging 
apex. Outline of rami slightly concave ; gonys about straight ; eminence at symphysis large 
and prominent, but its apex not very acute. Breeding plumage : Bill bright chrome, its tip 
diaphanous , a vermilion spot at the angle, with sometimes a small black one just anterior to it. 
Legs and ieet pale flesh-color ; claws blackish. Mantle typical gull-blue," much lighter than 
in occidentalis ; lighter than in hrachyrhynchus ; of much the same shade as in delawarensis or 
glaucescens; darker than in glaucus or leucopterus. The bases of the primaries are the same 
as the back, or very slightly lighter, not so light, nor of so great extent (being exceedingly 
short on the first primary), nor so broad at the end, as in californicus. On the first primary 
this light basal portion is very short, hardly reaching within six or seven inches of the tip of 
the primary. Tt is not lighter at its junction with the black, nor does it extend further on the 
central portion than on the edge of the feather. On the second, third, and fourth primaries the 
bluish of the basal portions of the feather extends about the same distance on each (within 
four inches of the tip of the second), and runs up further on the centres of the feathers than on 
their edges, and grows nearly white at its junction with the black portion of the feathers. 
First primary with a subapical white spot near its tip; small, rounded, not much over an inch 
in diameter ; generally not longer on the outer vane than on the inner; sometimes wanting on 
