LkRWM. 367 



chin and under parts white ; breast mottled with brown, 

 forming a collar round the neck ; vent also mottled with 

 brown ; centre tail-feathers not fully developed. Length, 

 16" ; wing, 12" ; tail, 6". 



Commoii in Table Bay in the summer months, in the three phases 

 of plumage marked A, B, C. They chase the lesser gulls and terns, 

 and make them disgorge their prey ; but I have also seen them swim- 

 ming on the water searching for their own food. Their flight is very 

 Bwift, and sustained by powerful strokes of the wing, urging their 

 bodies through the air with great rapidity : their rapid evolutions 

 when in chase of the nimble terns are most graceful. 



Messrs. G. E. Gray and Tristram identify specimens of the small 

 Lestris of Table Bay sent home by me as examples of L. Parasiticus. 

 I cannot myself detect any difference, but M. Bonaparte seems to do 

 so, and has called our Cape bird L. Spinicauda. 



Genus LARTJS, Linn. 

 Bill more or less strong, as long as or shorter than the 

 head, straight, and laterally compressed, with the culmen 

 straight at the base, and arched to the tip ; the gonvs 

 slightly angulated and advancing upwards ; the nostrfls 

 lateral, with the opening near the middle of the bill, and 

 longitudinal; wings lengthened and pointed, with the fiist 

 quill the longest ; tail moderate and even ; tarsi nearly ns 

 long as the middle toe, strong, and covered in front with 

 transverse scales ; toes moderate, the anterior ones united 

 by a full web ; the hind toe short and elevated. 



682. Larus Dominicanus, Vieii. ; L. Vetuia, 



Baillon., Bp. Cons. Av., p. 214. 



Back, sooty-black ; quill-feathers jet-black, tipped with 

 white ; near the end of the outermost a white spot ; ends of 

 the smaller wing-feathers also white ; rest of the plumage 

 pure white; bill yellow, with knob near the tip of 

 the lower mandible scarlet. Length, 24"; wing, 17"; 

 tail, 7^". Young : throughout mottled brown and white ; 

 bill almost black ; irides rich- warm brown ; legs livid flesh- 

 colour. 



The above descriptions are taken from specimens killed on the 29th 

 of April, 1865, in Table Bay, by my son. It is an abundant species, 

 frequenting all our coast line, and breeding in large numbers on the 

 islands to the North-Westward. Their eggs are very variable in colour 

 and markings, but are ordinarily of a darkish olive-green, profusely 

 spotted with brown, chiefly in a band round the obtuse end • axis 

 3" ; diam., 2". 



I have had one in confinement for nearly two years, and he has 

 only just assumed the full adult plumage. I do not think that 

 it is put on till the third year. My friend " Jack " is quite tame, and 

 stalks about the garden and into the house at pleasure : he feeds on 



