ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



75 



of the mantle is very perceptible, while the Mexican bird has a distinct 

 ring on the bill, hardly appreciable in the specimen from Bering Island. 



According to the above, the present form may be charact'^rized as 

 similar to L. delawarcnsis, but with the mantle of californiciis. 



Of course, the reference of Saunders's caUfornicus from Japan to the 

 species in question is merely hypothetical, as there is as mnch possi- 

 bility for a Californian species occasionally straggling to Japan as for 

 a European appearing in the same manner in America. Much less doubt 

 is felt as to the other Japanese specimen, a young bird which Saunders 

 determined as delawa/rensis. 



Pallas's name niveus being iireoccupied we will have to look out for 

 another name. It may possibly be Middendorff's L. canus var. major 

 (1853), but as I have serious doubts as to the pertinency of that name, 

 and Saunders refers it to canus, and not to the Eastern Asiatic form, 

 considered by him to be niveus = californiciis, the varietal name given by 

 the great Siberian traveler may rest in peace where Saunders has left it. 



In 1854 Bonaparte, speaks of a new species in the following terms : 

 (Naumannia, 1854, p. 215) '•'■GavinaTxamtschatchensis, Bp., qui est la race 

 kamtschadale du Larus canus L." As this is all he says about it the 

 name is a ^'' nomen nudu^n,''^ aud consequently not entitled to reeogui- 

 tion. But two years later we find in Bonaparte's Conspectus Avium 

 (II, p. 224), as also in an article in the " Eevue etMagaziu de Zoologie" 

 for 1857, a statement that the name is a synonym, partially so at least 

 of X. niveus Pall., and as the description and the habitat assigned fit 

 our bird we feel no hesitation in adopting it. 



List of specimens obtained. 



1 Moulting. 2 Very worn. 



No. 92889. — Iris grayish cream color. Bill ocher-yellow tinged witli olive, and with a dusky spot on 

 both mandibles towards the tip. Naked eye- ring vermillion. Feet palo lemon-yellow with a bluish 

 gieen tinge which i.s stronger on the joints. Testes large, swollen. PI. vi, fig. 4. 



Ko. 92890. — Bill pale sti'aw-yellow, greenish gray towards the base ; angle of mouth orange. Eye-ring 

 dull reddish. Feet pale straw-yellow ; webs more vivid. 



