AVIS-IBIS

Birds of Indian Subcontinent

1136. Larus philadelphia

1136. Bonaparte’s Gull.
LARUS PHILADELPHIA.
Larus philadelphia (Ord), in Guthrie’s Geogr. 2nd Amer. ed. ii. p. 319 (1815) ; (Gould), B. of Gt. Brit. v. pl. 65 ; (Newton), P.Z.S. 1871, p. 57, pl. iv. fig. 6 (egg) ; Dresser, ix. p. 387, pl. 717 ; Saunders, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxv. p. 185 ; id. Manual, p. 661 ; Bidgway, p. 36 ; Lilford, vi. p. 35, pl. 17 ; L. bonapartii, Swains, and Richards. Faun. Bor. Am. Birds, p. 425, pl. 72 (1831).
Male ad. (Canada). Head and neck dark plumbeous black ; a narrow, interrupted white line round the eye ; mantle dark French-grey ; lower neck, upper tail-coverts, tail, and entire under parts white ; 1st primary white, but black on the outer web and across the tip, 2nd black across the tip and a little way up the edge of the inner web, the 3rd and 4th with broad subterminal black bands and white tips, pearl-grey on the inner webs, the rest up to the 7th grey with black subterminal bars, the 7th and 8th grey with a small dark margin at the end of the inner web ; bill deep black ; legs and feet orange-red ; iris dark brown, Culmen 1.6, wing 10.3, tail 4.0, tarsus 1.38 inch. In winter the head and neck are white, slightly marked with grey, a grey spot on the ear-coverts, the legs flesh-coloured.
Hab. North America, breeding in the Fur countries and found in winter as far south as Bermuda ; a rare straggler to Europe, having been obtained about six times in Britain, and once in Heligoland.
In habits it resembles L. ridibundus, but its flight is more Tern-like, it is very graceful on the wing, and frequently perches on posts and trees. It breeds in colonies, placing its nest, which is constructed of sticks, sometimes intermixed with moss and lichens, on trees and bushes, and in June, or early in July, deposits 3, rarely 4, eggs, which are pale olivaceous green or olivaceous brown with purplish grey shell-markings and blackish brown surface spots and blotches, and which measure about 1.95 by 1.35.

BookTitle: 
A Manual Of Palaearctic Birds
Reference: 
Dresser, Henry Eeles. A Manual of Palaearctic Birds. Vol. 2. 1903.
Title in Book: 
1136. Larus philadelphia
Book Author: 
H. E. Dresser
CatNo: 
1136
Year: 
1903
Page No: 
826
Common name: 
Bonaparte’s Gull
M_ID: 
4482
M_CN: 
Bonaparte's Gull
M_SN: 
Chroicocephalus philadelphia
Volume: 
Vol. 2
id: 
10072

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