548 BIRDS—LARIDZ. 
LARUS ARGENTATUS Brunn. 
VAY. SMITHSONIANUS Coues. 
American Herring Guil. 
Larus argentatus, AUDUBON, Orn. Biog., ili, 1835, 98; B. Am., vii, 1844, 152, 167.—Kirr- 
LAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 166, 185. WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 370; 
Reprint, 1861, 12. 
Larus argeniatus, var. smithsonianus, WHEATON, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 
1874, 575; Reprint, 1875, 15.-LaNepon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 18; Revised List, 
Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 186; Reprint, 20. 
? Larus occidentalis, TREMBLY, Field Notes, i, 1861, 129, 180. 
Herring Gull, BALLOU, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 
Larus argentatus, BRUNNICH, Orn. Bor. 1764, 44. 
Larus smithsonianus, COUES, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1862, 296. 
Larus argeniaius, var. smithsonianus, Cours, Check List, 1874, 103. 
Feet flesh-color; bill yellow with red spot; mantle pale dull blue (darker than in 
leucopterus, but nothing like the deep slate of marinus, much the same asin all the rest of 
the species); primaries marked as in marinus (but the greater majority of specimens will 
be found to have the not quite mature or final condition) ; length, 22-27; wing, 15-18; 
tarsus, 24-22; bill, about 24 long, about 3-2 deep at base, and avout the samme at the pre- 
tuberance. In winter: head and hind neck streaked with dusky. Young :—Aié first 
almost entirely fuscous or sooty-brown, the feathers of the back, white-tipped or not; 
size at the minimum above given. As its grows old, it gradually lightens; the head, 
neck and under parts are usually quite whitish, before the markings of the quills are 
apparent, and before the blue begins to show, as it does in patches, mixed with brown ; 
the black on the tail narrows to a bar, at the time the primaries are assuming their 
characters, but this bar disappears before the primaries gain thoir perfect pattern. 
At one time the bill is flesh-color or yellowish, black-tipped. 
Habitat, North America gonerally; especially on the Atlantic coast. Cuba to Labra- 
dor; breeding from New England northward. Also in the interior, and occasionally on 
the Pacific coast. 
Common spring and fall migrant on Lake Erie, less common on the 
Ohio ; common but irregular, most frequent in spring, on the streams of 
the interior of the State. In the vicinity of this city, the Herring Gull 
is,in spring, the most frequently seen of all the Gulls, though usually 
occurring singly or in small companies of six or eignt, and never In con- 
siderable numbers as is sometimes the case with Bonaparte’s Gull. They 
frequent the swift shallows below dams, fying up, dewn and across the 
giream hunting for fish, which they pounce upon, somewhat in the 
manner of the Kingfisher, occasionally alighting in the water, apparently 
to rest. These birds wre generally more shy and wary than they are 
found in the cities of the lake shore, where they spent much of their 
time among the shipping of the rivers or harbor apparently as uncon- 
cerned in the presence of man as are domestic pigeons. Occasionally an 
