523 



LARUS. GULL. 



The Gulls, properly so called, are birds of large or 

 moderate size, having the body full ; the neck thick and of 

 moderate length ; the head large, broadly ovate, narrowed 

 anteriorly. 



Bill of moderate length, stout, straight, decurved at the 

 end, compressed, higher near the end than at the base ; upper 

 mandible with the dorsal line straight for half its length, then 

 arcuato-decurvate, the ridge rather broad, convex, the lateral 

 sinus rather short, wide, and feathered, the nostrils mcdio- 

 basal, linear-oblong, wider anteriorly, covered above and 

 behind with a sloping thin-edged plate, the branches convex, 

 the sides beyond the nostrils sloping and a little convex, the 

 edges very thin, direct, the tip narrow, obtuse, a little pro- 

 longed ; lower mandible narrower, much compressed, with 

 the intercrural space long and narrow, the crura nearly erect, 

 flattened, their lower outline concave, forming at the commis- 

 sure an obtuse angle with the dorsal line, Avhich is ascending 

 and somewhat concave, the edges very thin and somewhat 

 inflected, the tip narrow, but obtuse; the gape-line com- 

 mencing beneath the eyes, nearly straight until beyond the 

 nostrils, when it becomes declinato-decurvate. 



Mouth of moderate width ; palate flat, with two very 

 prominent papillate ridges, and four series of intervening 

 papillae ; five ridges along the upper mandible ; posterior 

 nasal aperture linear. Tongue emarginate and finely papil- 

 late at the base, fleshy, rather narrow, deeply channelled 

 above, tapering to a narrowly-rounded point, and horny be- 

 neath. Oesophagus very wide throughout ; its proventricular 

 portion wide, with a continuous belt of very small, oblong 

 glandules, and transversely very prominent ruga*, continuous 

 with those of the stomach. That organ rather small, ellipti- 



