LARUS. 95 
“Adult female.—Very similar but, as a rule, somewhat browner on the 
shoulders and with less lead-color on the throat, slightly smaller, and 
with a weaker bill. 
“Tmmature.—Similar, but with even less lead-color, and a dark line 
along the upper wing-coverts. 
“Young.—Browner generally and paler; forehead and crown grayish 
brown; below the forehead a narrow white superciliary line conspicuous 
by contrast against the blackish lores. 
“Fledgling (Ascension I.).—Umber-brown above and below; the 
whitish streak above the lores very marked, and continuous round base of 
bill; a slight grayish tint on forehead. 
“Downy nestling.—One about five days old (British Honduras: May 
12, 1862) has the forehead and crown dull white, lores blackish, upper 
surface mouse-brown, nape and throat darkest, lower parts paler. An- 
other, only just hatched, is nearly uniform, sooty brown.” (Saunders.) 
Subfamily LARIN &. 
Of larger size than the terns; body and bill heavier; tail square or 
nearly so. 
Genus LARUS Linneus, 1758. 
Characters same as those given for the Subfamily. 
Species. 
a, Smaller; length, 400 mm.; wing, 300_................. ete DN Ike ridibundus (p. 95) 
mewarper slenoth) G00 mimi.s wing, 450). 2222222 cote a et tce td nckeap-nneater ates vege (p. 97) 
86. LARUS RIDIBUNDUS Linneus. 
LAUGHING GULL, 
Larus ridibundus Linnxus, Syst. Nat. ed. 12 (1766), 1, 225; SAUNDERS, 
Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 25, 207; SHARPE, Hand-List (1899), 1, 
140; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eges (1901), 1, 208; McGrecor and WorcEs- 
‘ TER, Hand-List (1906), 21. 
Luzon (Jagor, Murray, McGregor) ; Mindanao (Murray, Goodfellow). Europe, 
northern Asia, Africa, and Indian Ocean; China to Malay Archipelago in winter. 
“Adult male in breeding plumage.—Hood coffee-brown; gray mantle, 
white tail, and white under surface tinged with evanescent roseate ; 
pattern of outer primaries chiefly white, with black tips, and black margins 
to inner webs; shafts of three outer quills white; outermost quill white, 
with a narrow black line along the greater part of outer web (touching 
the shaft in all except very old birds), a black tip, and a blackish edge 
to the inner margin; second quill similar, but with merely a short hair- 
dine of black on the outer web; third quill with a trifle more black run- 
ning upward from the black tip along the outer web; fourth quill similar, 
but with a gray center to inner web; fifth quill white on both webs, and 
with a minute white tip; sixth similar, but the tip gray and broader, so 
