i 
LAEII)^ — LABINuE : GULLS. 753 
789. K. ro'sea. (Lat. rosea, rosy.) Wedge-tailed, or Ross' Rosy Gull. Adult: White, 
rosy-tinted; a black collar, but no hood; mantle pearly-blue; primaries marked with black; 
bill black, gape and edge of eyelids red; feet vermilion. Length 14.00; wing 10.50; bill 
0.75, very slender; tarsus little over 1.00 ; tail 5.50, cuneate, the graduation being one inch. 
Young extensively mottled with blackish. Arctic regions; a circumpolar species, chiefly 
inhabiting the Arctic coasts of N. Am. and Siberia, though known to come southward to the 
Faeroes and Heligoland in Europe, and to St. Michael's in Alaska. This exquisite gull, famed 
for the beauty of its plumage, remained until recently one of the rarest of birds in collections ; 
only about a dozen being known to exist, not one of them in any American museum. In 1879, 
Mr. R. L. Newcomb, naturalist of the ill-fated Jeannette," secured eight specimens on the 
Siberian coast, only three of them, however, being preserved. Mr. E. W. Nelson took one at 
St. Michael's, Alaska. More recently, a very lai"ge number of speciiriens have been secured at 
Point Barrow, on the Arctic coast of Alaska. 
313. XE'MA. (A nonsense word — sonus sensu carens.) Fork-tail Gulls. Tail forked (here 
only in LarincB). Head hooded, with a more or less evident darker collar. Bill black, w'lih. 
light tip. Size moderate and small. With a general bearing tow^ard Chro'icocephalus, in the 
hooded head and other features, the genus is distinguished from this or any other group of 
Larince by the tern-like character of the forked tail. 
Analysis of Species. 
Small : Wing 11 inches or less ; tail lightly forked ; a definite black collar bounding the hood ; feet black 
sabinii 790 
Large: Wing 16 inches or more ; tail deeply forked ; black collar inconspicuous ; feet reddish . . furcata 791 
790. X. sabi'nii. (To E. Sabine.) Fork-tailed Gull. Adult, breeding plumage: Bill black 
to the angle, abruptly bright chrome from angle to tip. Mouth bright orange ; eyelids 
orange ; legs and feet black. Hood uniform clear deep slate, bounded inferiorly by a ring, 
narrowest on the nape, of velvety -black. Lower part of neck all round, tail and its coverts, 
four inner primaries, secondaries, greater part of greater coverts, tips of tertials except the 
innermost, and whole under parts, pure white. Mantle slate-blue, extending quite to the tips 
of the inner tertials. Edge of wing from the carpal joint with the bastard wing, black. First 
five primaries, with their shafts, black; their extreme tips, and the outer half of the inner 
webs, to near the end, white. Other primaries white, the sixth with a touch of black on the 
outer web. Emargination of tail 1.25 inches. Length 13.75 ; wing 10.75; bill 1.00; along 
gape 1.50 ; height at angle 0.30; tarsus 1.25 ; middle toe and claw same. Adult in winter: 
Without the hood. Young-of-the-year : Tail forked, nearly as in the adult. Bill small 
and weak, flesh-color and dusky. Legs apparently flesh-colored. No hood nor collar. 
Most of the head, the back of the neck, and upper parts in general, slaty-gray, transversely 
waved with brownish-white ; each feather being tipped with this color. Under parts white. 
Tail white, with a broad terminal bar of black, an inch wide on the central rectrices, 
growing narrower on the others successively ; on the outermost sometimes invading only 
one web. This black bar very narrowly edged with white. Wings surprisingly similar to 
those of the adult, but the white on the inner webs more restricted, and the white tips very 
small or wanting altogether. Dimensions a little less than those of the adult. Young not 
distinctly resembling the same age of Cli. philadelpJiia. Arctic America, both coastwise and 
in the interior, irregularly south in winter through the U. S. ; Bermudas ; Peru ! Europe. 
Common enough in high latitudes, but seldom seen in the U. S., and still rather rare in col- 
lections. Eggs 3, 1.75 X 1.25, much like a curlew's in general aspect, brownish-olive, sparsely 
splashed with broMm. 
I' 791. X. furca'ta. (Lat. furcata, forked.) Swallow-tailed Gull. Immature ? Head and 
nearly all the neck grayish-brown ; a white mark on each side of the forehead; mantle gray- 
ish-white; tail white, much forked; lesser wing-coverts white; greater slate, white-bordered; 
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