Plate CCXLI. Male.
Bill robust, compressed, gamboge yellow, with a patch of carmine
toward the end of the lower mandible, feet flesh-coloured; head, neck,
lower parts, rump and tail, pure white; back and wings deep
blackish-purple or dark slate-colour; edges of wing and a large
portion of the extremities of all the quills white; the second, third,
fourth, and fifth primaries with a broad band of black across their
ends. Young when fledged with the bill brownish-black, the iris dark
brown, the feet as in the adult; the head and neck greyish-white,
streaked with pale brownish-grey; upper parts mottled with
brownish-black, brownish-grey, and dull white, the rump paler; primary
quills blackish-brown, slightly tipped with brownish-white;
tail-feathers white, with a large brownish-black patch towards the
end, larger on the middle feathers, which are also barred towards the
base with dusky; lower parts greyish-white, sides and lower
tail-coverts obscurely mottled with greyish-brown.
_Male_, 29-1/2, 67.
Not uncommon during winter as far south as Florida, the young
especially. Common from New York to Labrador, where it breeds. Lake
Erie, Ontario, the St Lawrence, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers. Columbia
River.
Larus marinus, Linn. Syst. Nat. v. i. p. 225.
Black-backed Gull or Cobb, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 308.
Great Black-billed Gull, Larus marinus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v.
iii. p. 305; v. v. p. 636.