617 



RHODOSTETHIA. ROSY-GULL. 



A SINGLE species, remarkable for its wedge-shaped tail 

 and the beautiful roseate tint of its plumage, has been con- 

 sidered by some ornithologists as entitled to generic distinction. 

 I am not prepared to say that it is not. The Prince of 

 Canino, in his " Comparative List," names this genus Rossia, 

 after Captain Sir James Ross, to whom also Mr. Owen has 

 dedicated a genus of Cephalopodous mollusca, under the 

 same name. This latter genus has been defined and charac- 

 terized, and therefore must lemain ; while the other, being 

 nothing but a name, must vanish. The other proposed name 

 ought, accordingly, to be adopted. The following generic 

 character is taken from the only specimen I have seen : — 



Body moderate ; neck rather short ; head ovate. Bill 

 short, rather slender, compressed ; upper mandible with the 

 dorsal line straight for half its length, arcuato-decurvate 

 toward the narrow tip ; lower mandible with the intercrural 

 space very narrow, the prominence slight, the dorsal line 

 concave, the tip small. Legs short ; tibia bare for a very 

 short space ; tarsus rather stout, anteriorly scutellate, rough 

 behind ; first toe short, with a large curved claw ; anterior 

 toes moderate, with the membranes entire ; claws rather 

 large, arched, compressed, acute. Plumage soft and full ; 

 wings long, rather narrow, pointed ; tail cuneate, of twelve 

 feathers, of which the central are much longer than the 

 lateral. 



