Bonaparte’s gull. 
57 
round leaden-black, with a spot of white feathers above and 
below the eye ; hind neck, sides of neck, and under surface of 
body from the lower throat downwards, pure white, including 
the under wing-coverts and axillaries, the lower greater coverts 
tinged with silvery-grey like the quill-lining ; bill deep black ; 
tarsi and toes orange-red ; iris dark brown, 'lotal length, i2'5 
inches; cuhnen, i’2; wing, io'4; tail, 37; tarsus, i'4. 
Adult Female. — Similar to the male. Total length, 12-2 
inches ; W'ing, lo’o. 
Adult in Winter Plumage. — Lacks the black head of the sum- 
mer plumage, the crown being white, w’ith some streaks of dusky- 
grey towards the nape ; behind the eye a spot of greyish-black ; 
tarsi and toes duller in colour. 
Young. — Brown above, mottled with grey bases to the 
feathers ; the crown of the head ashy-brown ; the forehead and 
eyebrow white like the hind-neck ; sides of face white, with 
a tinge of buff, which is found on the sides of the neck, 
finishing on the chest ; a spot of black on the ear-coverts ; 
wing-coverts mostly blackish, with grey bases and fulvescent or 
whitish tips ; the secondaries with sub-terminal black markings 
of large size ; primary-coverts white, with broad longitudinal 
centres of black; the primaries differing in markings from those 
of the adults, the first one being black along both sides of the 
shaft, the second having a little black along the middle of the 
inside of the shaft ; on the third the black on the inside of the 
shaft is almost absent, but with a good deal of white on the base 
of the outer web ; tail white, with a broad sub-terminal band 
of black. 
Characters.— The chief characters for distinguishing Bona- 
parte’s Gull in the fully adult plumage are its black bill and 
leaden-black hood. The differences in the young bird from 
those of the other British species have been detailed under the 
heading of the foregoing species. 
Range in Great Britain. — Some half-dozen examples of this 
North American species have been obtained within our limits. 
J-he first recorded was one killed near Belfast, in Ireland, m 
