animal substances thrown up by the sea, and also on the matters which the Gulls
disgorge when pursued by it. It retires from the north in the winter, and makes
its first appearance at Hudson’s Bay in May, coming in from seaward. The
Indians abhor it, considering it to be a companion of the Esquimaux, and to
partake of their evil qualities.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed in the Welcome, lat. 66°, in June*
C olour.—Head, neck, under eyelid, a patch at the corner of the mouth, back, wings, and
tail, brownish-black; flanks and sides of the breast blotched with the same. Shafts of the
quill and tail feathers white, except at their tips. Neck straw-yellow. Auriculars, chin,
throat, breast, and belly, white. Vent and under tail coverts blackish-brown. Bill dark-
brown, tipped with black. Legs black.
F orm.— Plumage of the nape long, tapering, and acute. Tail slightly rounded, independent
of the middle pair of feathers, which project three inches. These latter retain their
breadth throughout, are rounded at the tip, and are twisted so that their vanes incline
obliquely towards each other. Tarsus covered posteriorly by rough, angular scales, resembling
those of some pine-cones ; anteriorly, the lower two-thirds are acute, and are covered
by strong keeled scales, very different from those of L. parasitica, in which the anterior scales
resemble those of a Gull.
Dimensions
Of the mature male.
Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. ' Inch. Lin.
Length, total . 21 0 Length of wing 15 0 Length of middle toe . 1 7
„ excluding central : of bill above 1 7 „ of middle nail . 0 5
tail feathers 18 0 ,, of bill to rictus . 1 10 " „ of inner toe . l 04
,, of central tail fea„
of naked thigh . 0 10 * of hind toe’ . . 0 2
thers 9 6 „ of tarsus . 2 04 „ of hind nail o 34 —R.
[195.] 2. L e s t r i s p a r a s i t i c a . (Temrn. ?) Arctic Jager.
Genus, Lestris, I leig.
The Arctic Bird. Edw., pi. 148* ?
Lestris parasitica. Sab., Greenl. Birds, p. 551, No. 24 ; Suppl. Parry’s First Voy., p. ccvi., No. 21.
Sab. (J.) Fra/nkl. Joum., p. 697* Richards. App. Parry's Second Voy., p. 361, No. 27*
Lestris parasitica. Temm., p. 796 ?
Lestris Buffonii. Bonap. Syn., No. 306 ? ( Vide p". 433 of this work.)
Issunak. Esquimaux.
Ch. Sp. L. parasitica, fulignea, collo pectoreque stramineis, apicibus rectricum mediorum gracillimis elongatis acutis,
tarsis sesqwiunciaUbus subasperisflavescentibus.
Sp . Ch . Arctic J ager, blackish-brown; neck and breast straw-yellow; middle tail feathers terminating in long,
slender, sub-linear, acute points; tarsi an inch and a half long, slightly rough, yellowish.
This Jager inhabits the Arctic sea-coasts of America and Europe in the
* In the colour of the plumage and legs, and most of the dimensions, our bird agrees with Edwards’s figure, the
summer, migrating to the more temperate parts in winter. Numerous specimens
were brought home by the late Expeditions from Melville Peninsula, the North
Georgian Islands, Baffin’s Bay, and Spitzbergen. It resembles the Lestris
pomarina in its manners.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed on Melville Peninsula, June 17, 1822, and now in the Ed. Mus.
C olour.— Crown, nape, quills, and tail, pitch-black $ back, scapulars, and lesser wing
coverts, blackish-brown, with a tinge of grey ; shafts of the tail and quills whitish, except on
their tips. Head beneath the level of the eye, neck above and below, and breast, straw-
yellow. Anterior part of the belly whitish; posterior part, flanks, and under tail coverts,
brownish-grey: interior of the wing blackish-grey. Bill livid ; its tip, the knee joints, and
feet, blackish. Tarsi largely blotched with yellow.
F orm.—Bill having a straight commissure to past the nostrils, when it is curved in both
mandibles ; edges of the upper mandible obsoletely notched. Wings longer than the lateral
tail ifeathers. Tail rounded, exclusive of the middle pair of feathers, which are nearly an inch
wide at the base, and taper gradually to within three inches of their tip; thence they are
narrowly linear or slightly tapering, the extreme tip becoming suddenly acute ; they project
half a foot beyond the others. Tarsus slender, protected anteriorly by crescentic scutelli;
reticulated behind with minute conical and rather acute scales.
The female has precisely similar plumage.—A nestling, from Melville Peninsula, having
the head and neck still clothed with blackish-grey down, has the rest of the plumage blackish-
brown, margined on the back with light yellowish-brown, and transversely barred on the belly
with dull white. The wings and tail are brownish-black, without spots. The legs, posterior
parts of the webs, and toes, dull yellow. The tail is rounded, th ecentral feathers not projecting.
A specimen, from Hudson’s Bay, in the British Museum, is exactly similar to the old male
described above; while another specimen, in the same museum, brought from Baffin’s Bay
by Captain Ross, corresponding nearly in dimensions and in the colour of its plumage (except
that there is some white on the under tail coverts, as is usual in the younger birds),
differs in the bill being less curved, the curve of the commissure commencing considerably
before the nostrils, and in the posterior scales of the tarsus being considerably smoother.
The middle tail feathers are a quarter of an inch wider at the base, and the narrow ends
shorter,—probably the less mature state of the plumage.
A British specimen, also in the same museum, similar to the Melville Peninsula one in
plumage and colour of the bill and legs, differs in being of rather smaller dimensions, and in
only difference being the greater length—of “ near two inches,”—which he assigns to the tarsus in the text, and its
much greater roughness. Notwithstanding this discrepancy, however, the general resemblance of his figure to the
specimen from the same locality in the British Museum, leads us to suspect that it may be intended for a representation
of the same species, the different examples of which exhibit considerable variations in the roughness of the tarsus.
None of the specimens we have described in the text have a bill equal in length, from the front, to that of L. Buffonii,
as characterized by the Prince of Musignano, by two lines ; but the rest of the characters correspond with his description
of that bird.—R.