On Audouiri's Gull. 491 



XXVIIT. — Remarks on Audouin's Gull (Lariis audouini). 

 By Count E. Arrigoni Deoli Oddi. 



AuDouiN^s Gull [Larus audouini) may fairly be considered 

 the rarest of the European species, for the other Gulls are 

 sufficiently plentiful in the districts in which they breed, 

 although they may appear only as stragglers in the south, 

 while the subject of this article is very uncommon even in 

 the small area to which it belongs. It is a true Sea-GuU, 

 and Mr. Howard Saunders, the chief authority on the 

 family, describes its habitat in this manner^: — "Western 

 Mediterranean, chiefly within the Tyrrhenian Sea, but as 

 far as the Straits of Gibraltar and a little outside.'^ It 

 was included among Grecian species by Lindermayer f, 

 and among those of Corfu by the Hon, T. L. Powys % (after- 

 wards Lord Lilford), while Erhard states that it winters 

 in the Cyclades, and Canon Tristram § that it is the com- 

 monest Gull on the Lake of Galilee, though his specimens 

 all proved to be Common Gulls. Mr. E. C. Taylor |j 

 thought that some Gulls which he saw near Cairo were of 

 this species, and v. Heuglin consequently admitted it to 

 his list ^. 



The most eastern locality in which Audouin's Gull has been 

 procured is Melissa, in the Sporades, whence two examples have 

 been sent to the Sarajevo Museum"^*. To the westward 

 Natterer found it at Tarifa, and it has been seen a little 

 outside of Gibraltar. Loche has stated that it bred in Algeria^ 

 but has given no further details ; it has occurred from time 

 to time in Corsica and in Sicily, but has only once been 

 killed on the mainland of Italy, in Liguria. It is resident 

 on the rocky islets round Sardinia, from Spargi and Spar- 

 giotto tt; Caprera and Maddalena (Straits of Bonifacio) to 



* Cat Birds Brit. Mas. xxv. pp. 271-273 (189G). 



t Die Vogel Griech. p. 177 (1860). 



\ Ibis, 18U0, p. 356. 



§ Op. cit. 1868, p. 330. II Op. cit. 18G7, p. 72. 



51 Orn. N.O.-Afr. Bd. ii. pt. 2, p. 1387 (1873). 



** E. Arrigoni Degli Oddi, Ornis, x. p. 182 (1899). 



tt Lord Lilford, IWs, 1SS7, pp. 280-281. 



