LARID.E — THE GULLS AND TERNS — LARUS. 241 



Remainder of the plumage pure white. Bill deep chrome-yellow, the mandible red snbterminally, 



near the angle; eyelids orange-red (Saunders) ; legs and feet yellow (Saunders) ; iris pale 

 yellow. Adult, in winter: Similar, but head and neck, above and posteriorly, streaked with 

 brownish gray. 1 Young: "The young have always flesh-colored legs, and cannot possibly, 1 

 believe, be distinguished from the young of L. argentatus" (Giglioli, "Ibis," 1881, p. 219). 



Total length, about 26.00 inches ; wing, 15.15-18.30 (average 16.39); culmen, 1.00-2.20(2.05) ; 

 depth of bill through angle, .60-.80 (.72) ; tarsus, 2.15-2.50 (2.41) ; middle toe, 1.60-2.15 (1.95). 

 [Six adults.] 



This easily recognized species more nearly resembles, except in size, L. californicus than L. 

 argentatus, with which it has generally been compared, the color of the mantle being precisely 

 similar, while the eyelids are red, as in that species, and not yellow, as in argentatus. The bill, 

 however, is similar in shape, size, and color to that of argi ntatus, being destitute of the black spots 

 always present in californicus. The feet are stated to be yellow (cf. Saunders, P. Z. S., 1878, 

 p. 170), while those of californicus are pea-green, and those of argentatus flesh-colored. It would 

 be interesting to know the color of the iris in this species, since its true relationship might thus 

 be more easily determined. L. argentatus and L. californicus are very different in this respect, the 

 former having pale yellow or silvery-white, the latter dark brown, hides. 



This species has been only quite recently ascertained by Mr. Ridgway to be the 

 common Gull of the Northern Pacific coast from San Francisco northward to Alaska. 

 While closely resembling the argentatus, Mr. Howard Saunders thinks that it may 

 properly be considered as being distinct from that bird. Owing to the great confusion 

 that has existed in regard to the identity of this species, very little can be given with 

 certainty descriptive of its specific peculiarity of habits ; and even its area of distri- 

 bution must remain for the present largvl\ conjectural. Mr. Saunders, who was not 

 then aware of its presence on our Pacific coast, mentions it as straggling up the 

 French coast as far north as Havre, as replacing the argentatus in the Mediterranean, 

 ranging throughout that inland sea, and breeding on its shores and islands; thence it 

 extends up the Black Sea, across the steppes and low-lying marshy and salt-lake dis- 

 tricts of Russia, from the mouths of the Volga and the shores of the Caspian as far 

 as Vologda; across the Ural River and the Kirgish steppes to the Irtich, and as fat- 

 as Lake Baikal. It goes down the Red Sea; and in winter visits the Persian Gulf 

 and the. Mekran coast as far as Kurrachee. It is also found at that season along the 

 coasts of China and Japan ; and is the species recorded under the names of L. cachin- 

 nans and L. oecidentalis by Swinhoe — who, however, did not meet with the true 

 occidentalis, which has never been obtained on the Asiatic shore. All the notes we 

 have which can properly be referred to this species as existing on our own coa its 

 have been given under the supposition that the species spoken of were the argentatus. 

 Both Mr. Bischoff and Mr. Dall refer to what is presumed to have been this bird as 

 occurring at Plover Bay, in Eastern Siberia; and he also met with it on the Upper 

 Yukon, where he found it replacing the leucopterus of the Lower Yukon. It arrives 

 in that region about the 2d of May, breeds on the islands of that river, where he 

 obtained examples of its eggs. These were laid on the bare ground in slight 

 depressions. 



According to Dr. Cooper's observations, this species is not so common on the 

 Pacific coast as is the argentatus on that of the Atlantic. It occurs in considerable 

 numbers about the large rivers and lakes of the interior of California, and is not 

 uncommon in the winter on the coast. In the severe winter of 1861-1862 Dr. Cooper 



1 According to Professor Giglioli (cf. " Ibis," April, 18S1, p. 210), "the adults in all seasons have the 

 head and neck pure white, without any trace of brown specks, and the legs and feet of a bright yellow. 

 Specimens in the "National Museum, however, from Japan and the Pacific coast of North America, are 

 marked as described above. 



VOL. II. — 31 



