LAUGHING GULL 
219 
the neck, breast, whole lower parts, tail-coverts and tail, pure 
white ; the scapulars, wing-coverts, and whole upper parts, are 
nates in a spot near the tip of the sixth. The first quill has a white tip an inch and a half 
long, marked interiorly with a brown spot; the second has a round Avhite spot on its inner 
weh, and, together with the rest of the quill feathers, is tipped with white. Head, neck, 
rump, tail, and all the under plumage, pure white. Bill wine-yellow, with an orange-coloured 
spot near the tip of the under mandible. Irides, primrose-yellow. Legs, flesh-coloured. 
Form. — Bill moderately strong, compressed ; upper mandible, arched from the nostrils ; 
nostrils, oblong oval ; wings, about an inch longer than the tail ; thighs, naked for three 
quarters of an inch; hind toe, articulated rather high. 
The young have the upper plumage hair-brown, with reddish brown borders ; the head, 
and under plumage, grey, thickly spotted with pale brown; the tail mostly brown, tipped 
with white. 
Dimensiojjs. — Length, total, 23 inches ; of tail, 7 inches, 3 lin. ; of wing, 16 inches, 6 lin. ; 
of bill above, 2 inches; of hill to rictus, 3 inches ; from nostrils to tip, 11 lin. ; of nostrils, 
414 lim ; of tarsus, 2 inches, 4}4 lin. ; of middle toe, 2 inches, 1 lin. ; of middle nail, 5 lin. ; 
of inner toe, 1 inch, 6 lin. ; of inner nail, 4 lin. ; of hind toe, 3 lin. ; length of hind nail, 234 
Six individuals, killed on Melville Peninsula, in June, July, and September, varied in total 
length from 23 to 25 inches, and in the length of their tarsi, from 27 to 31 lines. 
Bonaparte thus gives the distinctive characters of the two species : — 
L. argentatoides . — Back and wings, bluish grey ; quills, black at the point, tipt with 
white, reaching but little beyond the tail ; shafts, black ; first primary, broadly white at tip ; 
second, with a round white spot besides ; tarsus, less than two and a half inches ; nostrils, 
oval ; length, twenty inches. 
» i. argentatus. — Mantle, bluish grey ; quills, black at the point, tipped with white, reach- 
ing much beyond the tail ; shafts, black ; first primary only, with a white spot besides the 
narrow tip; tarsus, nearly three inches; nostrils, linear; length two feet. They are 
closely allied, and may at once be distinguished by the size.” 
12. L. argentatus, Brunn. — Herring gull, Wilson’s List. Common to both continents, 
and not uncommon near New York and Philadelphia. 
13. L. leucopterus, Faber. — Inhabiting the Arctic circle, whence it migrates in winter to 
the Boreal regions of both continents, advancing farther south in America : not rare in 
the Northern and Middle States. 
14. L. glaucus, Brunn. — Inhabiting the Arctic regions, and exceedingly rare in the 
United States. 
15. L. marinus, Linn. — Black-backed gull, Wilson’s List. Not uncommon during winter 
in the Middle States. 
16. L. zonorhynchus, Richard.— Ring-billed mew gull, a new species, described in Northern 
Zoology. Bill, ringed rather longer than the tarsus, which measures two and a half 
inches ; mantle, pearl grey ; ends of the quills and their shafts, blackish ; a short white 
space on the two exterior ones. 
17. L. hachyrhynchus, Richard.' — Short-billed mew gull. Another species described as 
new in the Northern Zoology. From the description of the present bird, copied from 
that work, it will be seen that the authors themselves are not decided in their opi- 
nions as to the absolute distinction of this and the preceding from L. canus, and I have 
placed them here for the same reason that they are admitted into that valuable work. 
It is not unlikely that they, or at least the same varieties, may be discovered on our 
own coasts. 
" Short-billed mew gull, with a short, thickish bill ; a tarsus scarcely two inches long j 
quills, not tipped with white ; a short white space on the two exterior ones, and blackish 
shafts.” 
“ Our specimen of this gull is a female, killed on the 23d of May, 1825, at Great Bear Lake. 
Some brown markings on the tertiaries, primary coverts, and bastard wing, with an imper- 
