36 



lateral. Tarsi rather stout; the thumh very distinct, armed 

 with a nail as large as that of the outer toe. 



" The other specimen killed hy Mr. Sherer a few days later, 

 differs only in the first primary coverts having the same dark 

 colour with the outer web of the first primary itself." 



It would appear that the fate of the specimen of Larus E,ossii, 

 given to Mr. Sabine, is not known, and that none of our public 

 Museums have since been able to obtain examples, for Mr. 

 Mitchell, the Secretary of the Zoological Society, and joint- 

 author with Mr. G. E>. Gray, of the beautiful work now pub- 

 lishing on the genera of Birds, in writing to me upon the subject 

 remarks, " The only specimen I could hear of when I wanted 

 it [Larus B-ossii] for the " Genera of Birds" was one at Edin- 

 burgh, from which I obtained a drawing." 



Being anxious to know upon what evidence Professor Mac- 

 gillivray had inserted Larus Rossii, in his Manual of British 

 Ornithology, I wrote to this gentleman for information upon the 

 point, but at present no reply to my inquiry has reached me. 

 Messrs. Gray and Mitchell adopt for this species the subgeneric 

 name Rhodostethia, with the following characters : — 



Rhodostethia, Macgxllivray. 



" IBill short, slender, straight, with the culmen straight at the base, 

 and curved at the tip, the sides compressed, the gonys short, advancing 

 upwards, and scarcely angulated ; the nostrils lateral and submedial. 

 Wings lengthened and pointed, with the first quill the longest. Tail 

 moderate and wedge-shaped. Tarsi strong, as long as the middle toe. 

 Toes moderate, the anterior ones united by a full web ; the hind toe 

 short and elevated." 



Mr. Yarrell, in a subsequent letter, put me In possession of 

 the following notes which he had taken of the winter plumage, 

 &c., of this specimen.* 



• Its capture is authenticated in the following memorandum, received from 

 Henry Milner, Esq. (Nun Apple ton) : — "Eoss's Gull was killed by Horner, Lord 

 Howden's head keeper, in February last (1847), in a ploughed field, near the hamlet 

 of Milford cum Kirby, in the parish of Kirby : its flight resembled according to 

 Homer's account, the flight of any other gull, and it did not seem at all shy." 



