THE BONAPARTIAN GULL. 
319 
colour : — described to be carmine in the adult. The tail may be termed even at 
the end, ‘ very slightly rounded laterally.’ the beautiful long tern-like wings were 
to me the most striking character at the first glance, and indicated what was afterwards 
found had been remarked by Audubon, viz. that — c the flight of this gull is light, 
elevated, and rapid, resembling in buoyancy that of some of our terns, more than 
that of most of our gulls, which move their wings more sedately.’ 
“ Plumage. Head white, excepting the usual blackish seasonal ear-spot of Xema 
a little of this colour before the lower portion of, and beneath the eye, and a little 
above it posteriorly — also blackish mixed with white on the nape. Thence to the 
back very pale pearl-grey ; back or mantle (‘ manteau,’ Temm.) pearl or pale bluish- 
grey. Tail pure white, except from about a line inwards from the tip, where a band 
of black nearly an inch in breadth appears. The wings exhibit generally the bluish- 
grey of maturity, but have ‘clove-brown markings on the bastard wing, lesser 
coverts, and scapulars ; anterior border of the wing white from its shoulder for the 
breadth of four great primary coverts.’ Primaries exhibiting in degree considerably 
more black than the specimen described in ‘ Faun. Bor.-Amer.’- — outer margin of the 
first entirely black ; of the second, from tip upwards for 5^ inches black, thence 
white ; of the third, from the tip upwards black for 4 inches next the shaft, for 3^ 
inches on outer margin.* Remainder of the primaries terminated with brownish- 
black, except at the extreme tip. On the third, the first indication of white appears 
in a mere line of that colour, thence it becomes gradually larger in size and deeper 
in shade to the seventh, where it assumes the pearl-grey of the lower portion of the 
same feather. The black becomes more and more tinged with brown from the 
first primary to the last ; the light-coloured tip on the contrary becomes gradually 
of a deeper shade from the third to the last. 
“ Shafts of all the primaries white, except the upper portion of the first, which 
is dusky. Black appears on the inner web of the three longest primaries, much 
lessening both in length and breadth from the first to the third ; in the first it 
occupies four inches in length, and its greatest breadth from the shaft is 4 lines 
(i inch). 
“ The secondaries exhibit a large space of blackish-brown towards the tip within 
their pearl-grey margins ; the tertiaries have more or less of blackish-brown irregu- 
larly disposed towards their tips. 
“ Under surface of wings entirely white, except that the portions of the primaries, 
secondaries, and tertiaries, which are dark above, appear greyish. Entire under 
surface of body from the bill to the extremity of the under tail-coverts white, of an 
extremely faint roseate hue. The bird would, I consider, have attained full plumage 
at the next moult. The weight was 5^- ounces. It proved a male on dissection. 
The stomach contained the remains of two specimens of opossum shrimp [My sis), a 
little vegetable matter, and some small pebbles. 
“ * Dr. Richardson remarks that, — ‘ the extent of black on the ends increases 
gradually from the first to the fourth, on which it measures above an inch, diminishing 
again in the following ones.’ In my specimen, the extent of black increases gra- 
dually only to the third, in which it is 1^ inch in depth, and diminishes in the 
succeeding feathers. 
