LAEUS AUDOUINI 371 



that sea. It is recorded by Natterer as having been once obtained 

 near Tarifa in Spain, and is said to have occurred on the Mediterranean 

 coast of France, the coasts of Majorca in the Balearic Isles, and in 

 Malta. Lord Lilford records an example obtained near Corfu, and 

 according to Erhard, it winters in the Cyclades. The headquarters, 

 however, of this Gull are undoubtedly the Italian islands, on several of 

 which the species is not uncommon and resident. It may thus be 

 met with on Sardinia, Corsica and Elba, as well as on the smaller 

 islands of Toro, Vacca, Caprera, Mai di Ventre, Cavoli and Colum- 

 bretes. It has also been obtained on the coasts of Sicily, and examples 

 have actually been secured in the harbour of Palermo, but there seems 

 to be no instance of its nesting in that island. On the Italian main- 

 land it has been obtained near Piombino, Albenga and one or two 

 other localities on the Ligurian coast, as also on the Calabrian coast. 



There is a fine series of specimens from the small islands off the 

 Sardinian coasts in the Lilford collection. 



Audouin's Gull is essentially a deep-sea species, frequenting chiefly 

 rocky islands, and seldom met with on level expanses of coast or in 

 shallow waters. It lives in small colonies, as a rule, apart from other 

 Gulls, though it may sometimes be found in the neighbourhood of the 

 Mediterranean Herring-Gull, but when breeding, its nesting quarters 

 are entirely apart from those of that species. 



To Lord Lilford we are indebted for some excellent notes regarding 

 this Gull, which appears to be excessively shy and wary, and, when 

 once disturbed, rarely approaches within gunshot, even near its 

 nesting-sites. Its general appearance on the wing resembles that of 

 L. cachiniians, but when not too far off the difference between the two 

 is easily discernible, and its cry is less harsh than that of the latter. 



According to Count Arrigoni (Man. Oru. Ital., p. 823) the present 

 species breeds at the end of May, laying from two to three eggs of a 

 fulvous or slightly olivaceous colour, spotted and blotched with under- 

 lying marks of blackish-grey and with blackish-brown surface-spots. 

 Measurements 62 X 43 mm. 



