POMARINE JAEGER. 545 
made of sticks and built in the forks of the branches. The trees (which were all dead) 
were mostly oaks, and covered with excrement. Ifound from two to four eggs or young 
to a nest. The young were queer little creatures—looked and felt like India rubber. 
The old birds flew around in clouds, and made their croaking notes, indicative of their 
displeasure at my presence. Some of the trees had ten or twelve nests on them. As 
the timber has rotted and blown down, the birds have become less and less numerous.’ 
‘‘The above circumstances occurred during the month of June, 1867, since when, as 
Mr. Dury states, these birds have rapidly decreased in numbers. The many specimens 
examined by him were, without exception, var. floridanus. 
‘¢ My own observation of the species in Ohio is limited to a single specimen found float- 
ing in the Reservoir late in October, 1874, when its comrades had probably migrated. 
It has also been tolerably well identified on both Miamis during the migrations.” 
ORDER LONGIPENNES. LONG-WINGED 
SWIMMERS. 
FAMILY LARIDA. GULLS, TERNS, ETC. 
Nostrils not tubular, lateral, perforate. Bill with continuous covering, or only broken 
by a sort of cere, hooked or straight to the end. Hallux small and elevated but always 
present. 
Sub-family Lusrripinam. Jaeger or Skua Gulls. 
Covering of bill discontinuous, the upper mandible being saddled with a large horny 
‘‘ cere” beneath which the nostrils open (unique among water birds); bill epignathous. 
‘Tail nearly square, but the middle pair of feathers long-exserted. Feet strong, tarsi 
scutellate in front, rough behind ; toes full-webbed. 
Genus STERCORARIUS. Brisson. 
With characters of the sub-family. 
STERCORARIUS POMATORHINUS (Temm.) Vieillot. 
Pomarine Jaeger. 
Lestris pomarinus, TEMMINCK, Man., 1815, 514. 
Stercorarius pomarinus, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. d’Hist., Nat., xxxii, 1819, 1o8. 
Stercorarius pomatorhinus, NEwTon, ibis, 1865, 509, 
Middle tail feathers finally projecting about four inches, broad to the tip. Length, about 
20 inches; wing, 14; bill, 14-1%; tarsus about 2. Adult:—Back, wings, tail, crissum 
and lower belly brownish-black; below from bill to beily, and neck all round, pure 
white, excepting acuminate feathers of sides of neck, which are pale yellow; quills 
whitish basally, their shafts largely white; tarsi above blue, below, with the toes and 
GRACULUS CARBO (L.) Gray. 
Common Cormorant; Shag. 
Graculus carbo, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 1861, 480. 
This species was erroneously given by me, as above. Itis probably strictly maritime. 
19) 
