Birds observed in Kamchatka. 289 



eyelids pink ; of legs and feet light flesh ; of claws horn 

 with the tips lighter. 



Dr. Stejneger describes the colour of the feet as "pinkish 

 flesh-colour," and remarks that this character at once dis- 

 tinguishes L. schistisagus from L. affinis, which is said to have 

 the feet yellow, and also from L. marinus, in which the flesh- 

 colour is very pale and rather greyish. Very little seems to be 

 known about the distribution of this species, nor did my trip 

 to Ukinsk Bay add to our knowledge on that point, for I 

 have no notes of having met with any large Gulls in that 

 neighbourhood. It was described from Avacha Bay, in 

 Southern Kamchatka, and only occurs as an occasional 

 straggler on the neighbouring Commander Islands, where it 

 is represented by the totally different L. glaucescens Naum. 

 For the intermediate localities we had no certain record 

 until Dr. Stejneger found it to be, next to the Kittiwake, the 

 commonest breeding Gull of the Kurils*. It is therefore of 

 interest to record that I saw numerous Black-backed Gulls, 

 many in a light immature plumage, on Robben Island, Sak- 

 halin, when I visited it on July 11, 1896, and that, although 

 I did not obtain a specimen there, I distinctly noted that 

 the colour of the legs of these Gulls was pink, so that in all 

 probability they were L. schistisagus, since the colour of 

 the legs of this species should be far more conspicuous and 

 noticeable than are those of L. marinus. In Ukinsk Bay no 

 adult large Gulls w^ere seen. A young bird of the year, of 

 the size and general appearance of the young of L. glaucescens, 

 was observed near Karaga, but could not be identified on the 

 wing. 



Larus canus Linn. 



No. 8. ? , Petropavlovsk, July 17, 1896. Colour of bill 



yellow, except the light horn tip of the upper mandible; of 



angle of gape and eye-ring vermilion ; of iris light yellow ; 



of legs and feet greenish yellow, the soles of the feet lighter. 



* ["Hah. Bering Sea, Okhotsk Sea, and North Pacific down to Northern 

 Japan in winter. Headquarters appear to he ahout the Kuril Islands.' 

 Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 260 (1896).— Edd.] 



