16d7.J PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 121 



proper, and tbe Mediterranean Herring-gull, L. cachinnans, or whatever 

 its proper name may be.* That the flesh-color of the legs in the bird col- 

 lected by me was not an individual variation is evident from the fact 

 that I shot and examined two additional specimens in which the color 

 was the same, and through my biuocle I was able to make out that the 

 feet of the birds I only saw were similarly colored. The skins which 

 I afterwards received from Petropaulski were quite fresh, and the 

 color of the legs was a dark reddish violet-gray, a color they would never 

 have assumed had they ever been yellow. Von Schrenck obtained old 

 males, undoubtedly belonging to this species, at the Lower Amur in the 

 latter part of May, and he also describes the legs as flesh -colored (Reis. 

 Amurl., I, p. 505). The remarks by Mr. Iloward Saunders (P. Z. S. 

 1878, pp. 170 and 172) in regard to the intensity of the colors of the 

 soft parts are hardly applicable to the present case, for while L. arf/en- 

 tatus, with flesh-colored feet, is northern and L. cachinnans, with yellow 

 legs, southern,! X. affinis breeds north of the Polar Circle, while L. schis- 

 tisagus breeds as far south as 52'^ north latitude. 



My specimens of L. schistisagus have the mantle just a shade darker 

 than any of the three L. affinis. 



The wing pattern of tbe two species is at least as diflerent as that of 

 any two species of the group to which they belong, although nearly 

 agreeing in regard to the absence of a gray wedge on the outer web of 

 the first three primaries. On the fourth primary my specimens of L. 

 affinis have a very abruptly-defined wedge in the outer web, while in the 

 type specimen of L. schistisagus the whole web is black ; but as No. 

 106625 in this respect resembles L. affinis, this difference in the pattern 

 of the fourth primary (shown in our figures, pi. viii) is of no account. 



In the first primary the size of the inner gray wedge is much greater 

 in L. schistisagus than in L. affinis, and the white at the tip appears to be, 

 on the whole, more extended. 



In the second primary the gray wedge in L. schistisagus goes farther 

 forwards ; a large white mirror is found in the black, and the white 



* Mr. Dresser (B. of Eur., VlII, p. 418) rejects Pallas's name for this bird, and calls 

 it L. leuco}}h(eus,hskSGd upon Bruch's application, in 1853, of the name given by Lichten- 

 stein to specimen in the Berlin Museum. In the Isis for 1832, cols. 1107, 1108, there is a 

 very good description of the bird by Bruch. He considers it a good species, mentioning 

 the dark color of the back, the red eyelids, and the yellow legs as distinguishing 

 it from L. argentatus, and proposes to name it after Dr. Michahelles. But he onits 

 to do so. In the 10th volume of Naumanu's " Naturgeschichte der Vogel Deutsch- 

 lands" (1840), p. 382, the description is repeated, and the name LarnsmichaliellistoTmaUy 

 applied to it. Those rejecting cachinifans must adopt L.viichaheUis, for leucoplwus, 

 although mentioned by Naumann {I. c), is not described. 



tin regard to the Kola Peninsula '■'■ Larus argentatus," however, Mr. Th. Pleske re- 

 marks as follows (Siiug. Vog. Kola-Halbins., II, 188ij, p. 390): "Meiner Ansicht nach 

 gehort die Silbermowederlapliindischen Halbinsel nicht zu der Hauptform Larus ar- 

 (jentatus, da sie sich von letzterer durch dunkleren Mantel und gelbe Fiisse uuterschei- 

 det. Ein von mirmitgebrachtes Exemplar einesalten Vogels .... stimmt mit der Be- 

 schreibung von Larus leucophwus Licht. iiberein." It may have been a L. affinis, 

 though if he compared it with Dresser's plate (B. Eur., VIII, pi. 602) he could hardly 

 confound them. 



