"Bill rather stout, and with the feet vermilion; mantle pearl-grey; wings an inch and a half longer than the tail, which is even; five exterior quills barred with black, the first one tipped with white for an inch; tarsus twenty lines long; hood black in summer. Both eyelids, the neck, rump, tail, and whole under plumage white, the latter and interior of the wings deeply tinged with peach-blossom red; black hood covering three-quarters of an inch of the nape, and extending as much lower on the throat; mantle and wings bluish-grey; the outer web of the first quill-feathers is black to near the top, and a broad band of the same crosses the ends of the five outer primaries; all the quill-feathers are terminated with white, that of the first primary and of all the secondaries being upwards of an inch long; all the shafts whitish."
Male, 17, wing, 11.
Interior of Fur Countries, breeding on the edges of large lakes.
Larus Franklinii, Franklin's Rosy Gull, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii p. 424.
Franklin's Rosy Gull, Larus Franklinii, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. v. p. 323.
446. 6. Larus tridactylus, Linn. Kittiwake Gull.
Plate CCXXIV. Adult and Young.
Bill moderately stout, greenish-yellow; feet black, with the hind toe rudimentary, and furnished with a minute knob in place of the claw; head, neck, rump, tail, and lower parts pure white; back and upper surface of wings light greyish-blue; the first five quills black at the end, the first on its outer web also; the fifth with a small white tip; the tips of all the other quills more or less white. Young in its second plumage with the bill and feet black; hind head and neck bluish-grey; a semilunar blackish mark before the eye; tips of auriculars dark grey; forehead, sides of head, throat, and lower parts, white, as are the rump and tail, the latter with a broad terminal band of black; mantle bluish-grey, with a broad band of black crossing the lower part of the hind neck; larger wing-coverts of the same colour toward the end; primary quills black, more or less margined with white internally.
Adult, 18, 361/2.
Common as far south as New York. Abundant from Massachusetts eastward. Breeds from the Bay of Fundy northward.
Larus tridactylus, Bonap. Syn. p. 359.
Larus tridactylus, Kittiwake, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 423.
Kittiwake, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 298.
Kittiwake Gull, Larus tridactylus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 186.