482 LARID.E. 



M. Temminck says this species has been taken in Baffin''s 

 Bay and Davis' Straits, Professor Calvi of Genoa notices 

 two taken there, one in the year 1826, the other in 1827. 

 M. Temminck mentions that the eggs of this species, which 

 he had seen, were smaller than those of Lams ridibiaidus, of 

 an ash-green colour, with darker spots, and mentions also 

 that M. de Selys Longchamps had sent him word that he had 

 seen one example of this bird in the collection of the ^lar- 

 quis Durazzo, which had been killed in Liguria. M. Savi 

 includes this species in his Birds of Italy. 



This Gull is best distinguished from the species next to be 

 described by its smaller size, its shorter and more slender 

 bill, its shorter legs, and smaller feet ; and in its summer- 

 plumage by the hair-brown feathers about the head forming a 

 mask and not a hood. 



The particulars of the bird in summer-plumage from Shet- 

 land, are as follows. The bill brownish-red ; the head and 

 upper part of the neck on the sides and front hair-brown, 

 bounded by blackish-brown ; no dark colour on the occiput, 

 but descending low on the fore part of the neck, where some 

 of the dark feathers were tipped with white ; the remaining 

 portion of the neck, the breast, abdomen, vent, and tail pure 

 white ; upper surface of the wings pale ash-grey, under sur- 

 face greyish-white ; primaries white, edged and tipped with 

 black, broadest on the inner web, the shafts white ; legs and 

 toes brownish red. 



In winter this bird, like all the Gulls which have dark- 

 coloured heads in summer, have the head white, with a few 

 dusky grey lines on the crown, a small patch of dusky black 

 under the eye, and another upon or under the ear-coverts. 

 The rest of the plumage as in summer, except that the black 

 colour on the wing primaries is more intense from the recent 

 renewal of the feathers at the autumn moult. 



