372 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



LARUS CACHINNANS, Pallas. 

 YELLOW-LEGGED HEEEING-GULL. 



Larus cachinnans, Pallas, Zoogr. Ilosso-As. ii, p. 318 (1811) ; Saunders, 

 Cat. Birds Brit. 2Ihs. xxv, p. 266 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1895, p. 106. 



Larus argentatus, Malherbe, Cat. Bais.d'Ois. Alg. p. 22 (1846). 



Laroides argentatus, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 179 (1867). 



Larus leucophseus, Koenig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 288 ; id. J. f. 0. 1893, 

 p. 99 ; Erlanger, J. f. 0. 1900, p. 75. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Tunis, North Tunisia. 



Head, neck, rump, tail and under parts white ; mantle, back, scapulars, 

 secondaries and upper wing-coverts pearl-grey, the larger coverts and 

 secondaries fringed with white ; outermost primary black, becoming white 

 towards the tip, and with the subapical portion black ; the next two 

 primaries rather less black, and with a smaller white patch towards the tip, 

 the remaining quills greyer, slightly tipped with white. 



Iris straw-yellow ; bare skin round the eye bright red ; bill yellow, with 

 a red spot at the angle of the lower mandible ; feet rich yellow, claws black. 



Total length 21 inches, wing 17'50, culmen 3, tarsus 3. 



Adult female similar to the male. 



In winter the head and neck are slightly striped with brown. The 

 species takes three if not four years to acquire its fully adult plumage, and 

 is subject to considerable variation in size, some examples beiug larger and 

 others smaller. According to Blanc specimens from South Tunisia are 

 larger than those from the north of the Regency. 



The colour of the soft parts varies a good deal according to age. 



The Yellow-legged Ilerring-Gull is abundant and resident along 

 the whole Tunisian coast from north to south. It is also not 

 uncouiiuon on the Algerian shores, but apparently becomes rarer 

 further west, and according to Favier {fide Colonel Irby), it is not 

 very common near Tangier, L. argentatus being far more plentiful. 



Mr. E. Cavendish Taylor found the present species fairly abundant 

 at Algiers, but comparatively rare at Oran, and he failed to meet with 

 it at Tangier. 



According to Mr. Saunders this Gull frequents the coasts of 

 Europe from the Gulf of Gascony southward, the Azores, Madeira, 

 the Canaries and North-west Africa, the entire basin of the Mediter- 

 ranean, the Black Sea, the Caspian-Ai-al region, and extends eastward 

 to Lake Baikal (breeding) ; while in winter it ranges southwards to 

 Angola, and visits the Eed Sea, the Persian waters, and the Bay of 

 Bengal. 



