r 
LABID^ — LARIN^: GULLS. 751 
787. C. franklini. (To Sir John Franklin.) Franklin's Rosy Gull. Adult in breeding 
plumage : Bill rather slender, attenuated and a little decurved at the tip, which is acute ; 
outline of both rami and gonys concave. Bill shorter than head ; tarsus equal to middle toe 
and chiw. Bill red (carmine, lake, or vermilion), crossed with black near the end. Legs 
dusky-reddish. Edges of eyelids orange. Eyelids white, this color also reaching a little 
behind the eye. Hood deep slaty or plumbeous-black, encircling the upper part of the neck 
as well as the head, and extending further on the throat than on the nape. Mantle not quite 
so dark as in atricilla (more blue), darker than in Philadelphia. First primary with the outer 
vane black to within an inch of the tip; the inner pearly-white, crossed an inch or more from 
the tip by an isolated black bar an inch broad, thus leaving the feather white on both webs 
for an inch or more from the tip. The next five primaries are basally of the color of the back, 
paler on the inner web, and both webs fading toward their tips into white ; each is crossed by 
a black bar near the end, two inches wide on the second primary, narrowing on successive 
feathers to a small bar or pair of little spots on the sixth ; the tips of all these primaries pure 
white. Other primaries, with secondaries and tertials, colored like the back, fading at the tips 
! into white ; shafts white, sometimes black along the black portion of the feather. Tail very 
pale pearly-blue, the three lateral pairs of rectrices white — or rather tail white, lightly washed 
with pearly on the six central feathers. Neck all around, rump, broad tips of secondaries and 
tertials, and whole under parts white, the latter rosy. Younger, that is to say, in sunnner 
plumage, and with a perfect hood, red bill, etc., but the primaries not yet having attained 
their perfect pattern : General coloration exactly as before. Shafts of first three primaries 
black, of the rest gray, except along the black portion of the feathers ; 1st primary with the 
outer web wholly black, the inner web pearly-gray, much like the back but lighter, to within 
two or three inches of the tip, then black for the rest of its extent ; 2d like the 1st, but the 
base of the outer web like the inner; on the 3d, 4th, and 5th, successively, the black decreases 
in extent, till on the 6th it is merely a little bar, or pair of spots ; tips of all the primaries 
white; that of the 1st primary smallest, that of the others successively increasing in size. 
Winter plumage : As in summer ; the hood wanting or indicated by a few slaty feathers about 
the eyes, on the auriculars and nape ; the rosy wanting ; the bill and feet dull-colored. 
Young : Bill blackish, with pale base of under mandible ; feet flesh-colored : eye black. 
Traces of a hood, or nape largely slaty, etc., according to precise age. Outer five or six 
primaries wholly black in their continuity, rather lighter and somewhat slaty at base, with 
or without a minute white speck at the tip. Mantle gray or brown, more or less mixed with 
blue, according to age. Tail ashy-white, with a broad black subterminal bar. Under parts 
white. This appears to be the usual plumage of birds of the first autumn. Dimensions : 
Length about 14.00 inches; extent 35.00; wing 11.25; tail about 4.50; bill along culmen 
1.30; along gape 1.75; height at nostril 0.35; tarsus 1.60; middle toe and claw the same. 
Young smaller than adults; bill 1.10-1.20 ; wing 10.00, etc. S. and C. Am. in winter ; in 
N. Am. migrating through the interior, chiefly west of the Mississippi, to the Arctic regions, 
; abundant ; has never been observed in the Atlantic States. Breeds from the N. border of 
the U. S. northward. Eggs 2.12 X 1-40, closely resembling those of the Eskimo curlew in 
size, shape and color ; though the dark splashes are more evenly distributed over the surface. 
788. C, philadel^phia. (To the city of that name.) Bonaparte's Rosy Gull. Adult, breeding 
^ plumage : Bill shorter than the head or tarsus, much compressed, very slender, like a tern's ; 
H both mandibles with a slight but distinct notch near the tip. Convexity of culmen slight, 
B gradual from base to apex; rami slightly concave; gonys about straight. Nostrils very narrow. 
Tarsus equal to middle toe and claw. Tail somewhat emarginate in the young. Bill 
black. Mouth and eyelids carmine. Legs and feet coral-red, tinged with vermilion. Webs 
bright vermilion. Hood plumbeous-slate, not so deep as in franJclini, enveloping the head 
and upper part of the neck, reaching further before than behind. White patches on eyelids 
