E. LÖNNBERG, HYBRID GULLS. U 



Unfortunately not much is left now of the L. marinus 

 X L. glaucus hybrids. Dr. Dreyer, Director of the Zool. 

 Garden of Copenhagen, bas informed me in a letter that none 

 such is living there now, and only a few ha ve been preserved. 

 Thanks to the courtesy of my friends Professor Ad. Jensen 

 and Inspector H. Winge I have bad the pleasure of exa- 

 mining the hybrid specimens belonging to the Zoological 

 Museum of Copenhagen, viz. 2 specimens bred in the Zool. 

 Garden and the above mentioned Gull from Upernivik. In 

 addition to this Prof. Jensen bas kindly obtained permission 

 for me to examine a fourth specimen (also from the Zool. 

 Garden) which belongs to a private gentleman, Conservator 

 ScHEEL of Copenhagen. I beg thus to publicly express my 

 thanks to these gentlemen mentioned for their kindness and 

 liberality. 



In speaking about the Larus marinus X L. glaucus hybrids 

 it may first be mentioned, that the three young birds of 

 this kind hatched this summer in »Skansens» Zool. Garden 

 in Stockholm are very similar to young Larus marinus of 

 the same age, and thus in their first plumage. They are, of 

 course, a little paler, but to such a slight degree, as to makes 

 itself apparent only at a direct comparison. The most con- 

 spicuous difference, on which the hybrids can be recognized 

 at once now in Septembre, is that the basal parts of their 

 bilis are påle about »flesh colour» only the tip being blackish,^ 

 whereas the whole bill of the young Larus marinus is blackish. 

 It might also be remarked that two of the hybrids have a 

 somewhat paler bill than the third.^ 



The youngest of the hybrid specimens belonging to the 

 Copenhagen Museum is signed »Zoologisk Have 1897». It is 

 a bird with juvenile plumage, probably two years old, or at 

 least in its second year. It is also, ön the whole, much more 

 similar to a L. marinus in the corresponding stage than to 

 a L. glaucus. This is especially the case with regard to 



^ They resemble in this respect the hybrids between Larus fuscus cT 

 and L. leucopterus 9 figured on Pl. 1. The dark of the L. marinus X 

 glaucus hybrids extends, however, a little further proximally than in the 

 figures quoted. 



"'' It is a curious fact that since these hybrids have löst their patents 

 by accident, they have selected the still living Larv^ fuscus X L. leuco- 

 pterus hybrid (which has been mentioned above) as foster mother, and it 

 has accepted its duties feeding them etc. 



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