752 
SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. —LONGIFENNES— GA VI^. 
narrow, and half posterior to the eye. Mantle pearl-blue, much lighter than in franTdini. 
Ends of the tertials and scapulars scarcely lighter than the back. Primaries : shafts of the 
first five or six white, except at their extreme tips, the others dark-colored ; first, outer web 
and extreme tip black, rest white; second, white, its tip black for a greater distance than the 
first, and on one or both webs, for a greater or less distance (sometimes half way down the 
feather) narrowly bordered with black ; third, fourth, fifth, sixth, black at the ends for about 
the same distance on each, the black bordering the inner web much further than the outer ; 
the inner webs of the third and fourth, and both webs of the fifth and sixth, of a rather lighter 
shade of the color of the back. Other primaries like the back, the seventh and eighth with 
a touch of black on one or both webs near the tip. The third to sixth primaries with a white 
or pearly-white speck at extreme tip. As is not the case with either of our other species of 
the genus, the primary wing-coverts, bastard quills, etc. , are wholly or in great part white, 
causing the whole wing to be bordered with white as far as the carpus. Neck all around, 
and under parts, including under wing-coverts, pure white ; the belly rosy in breeding time. 
No difference in color between the sexes. Adult, winter plumage : Bill light colored at base 
below ) feet flesh-color. Crescent before the eye, and patch below the auriculars, deep slate. 
Crown and occiput mottled with grayish-black and white. Back of neck washed over with 
the color of the mantle. Forehead, sides of the head and throat, white, continuous with the 
white of the under parts. Young, first winter : Bill dusky flesh-color, except toward the 
end ; legs and feet light flesh-color. Without the slaty mottling of the crown. Auricular 
patch distinct. Lesser wing-coverts and tertials dusky- brown, lighter along their edges. 
Secondaries with a patch of dusky near the end, which on the innermost three or four becomes 
restricted to the outer web. First primary, with about half the inner web along the shaft, 
black ; second and third with the outer webs wholly black, and a narrow line of black on 
the inner, along the shaft. Tail with a subterminal brownish -black bar. Very young : Bill 
flesh-color, dusky on the terminal half. Crown of head, and neck behind to the interscapulars, 
clouded with dusky bluish-gray, heightening on the sides of the neck into light grayish- 
ochreous. Scapulars and middle of the back light gull-blue, as in the adult, but the feathers so 
broadly (for i inch) tipped with grayish-brown, fading into dull white at tip, that the original 
color is nearly lost. Lesser wing-coverts and tertials brownish-black, the latter edged with 
the color of the edgings of the back. Bastard quOls and feathers along the edge of the wing 
variegated with black and white. Primaries black ; the outer two-thirds of the inner vane 
of the first four bluish-white to near the end ; both vanes of the others of that color for a little 
distance; the extreme tips of all but the two first,- white. Secondaries light gull-blue, each 
with a large terminal blackish spot continuous Math the black ends of the inner primaries. 
Tail with a broad terminal bar of black, and very narrowly tipped with dull white. Dimen- 
sions : Length 14.00 inches ; extent 32.00; wing 10.25; bill above, 1.20; gape 1.75 ; height 
at nostrils 0.25 ; tarsus, or middle toe and claw, 1.40. N. Am. at large, both coastwise and 
in the interior, migrating through and wintering in the U. S., breeding in high latitudes ; 
abundant; especially numerous along the Atlantic coast during the migrations ; accidental in 
Europe. One of the most airy, graceful, and elegant of the family. Eggs rare and scarcely 
known ; one has been described as 1.80 X 1-30, oUve-gray, with a close wreath of very 
dark and lighter brown splashes around the larger end, and other scratches and spots of the 
same scattered over the whole surface. In the interior this species and the last may often be 
seen winnowing over ploughed land, probably after earth-worms. 
312. RHODOSTE'THIA. {(ar. pobov, hrodon, the rose; (rrrjOos, stethos, the breast.) Wedge- 
tail Gull. Tail cuneate (here only among Laridce). Otherwise, form much as in other 
small gulls ; bill weak and slender, with little salience of the angle ; wings folding beyond 
the tail. No colored hood, but a black collar round neck. Under plumage blossoming in 
breeding season. 
