J 



Auk 

 au. 



is the same colour, the yellow and red of the bill are much 

 brighter, the tarsi and toes are brilliant yellow ; the mantle is, as 

 a rule, decidedly darker, while the black and gray on the pri- 

 maries show a deeper tone, and the middle toe with the nail is 

 usually rather shorter than the tarsus. 



" Tht fej?iale is smaller than the male as a rule. 

 '' Adn/t in wititer. As in summer; the usual greyish striations 

 being absent, or so faint as to be practically invisible. 



" Immature, Young, and Nestling. As in Z. argejitatus. The 

 tarsi and toes are at first flesh-coloured, but they soon begin to 

 show a yellowish tint in the live bird, though this is of course, lost in 

 preserved specimens. 



" Hab. Southern Europe, from the Gulf of Gascony downwards ; 

 Madeira (probably the Azores), the Canaries, and the opposite 

 coast of Africa ; the entire basin of the Mediterranean, the Black 

 sea, the Aral, the Caspian and eastward to Lake Baikal (breeding). 

 In winter to India, from the bay of Bengal to Bombay ; the Mek- 

 ran coast ; Persia ; the Red sea ; and down the west side of 

 Africa, apparently to Angola." 



The description of Larus vegce which is found in Vol. XXV, pp. 

 270-271, and which in my opinion gives the bird one of its true 

 characters is as follows : " Adult mate in breeding-plumage. Differs 

 from Z. cachinnans in the colour of its tarsi and toes, which are 

 pale flesh-colour, and the mantle is, perhaps, of a darker and bluer 

 grey. 



" Obs. It will be seen that Z. argentatus, L. cachinnans and 

 Z. vegce are very closely allied. There appears however, to be a 

 somewhat important break of continuity ; Z. argentatus stopping 

 at the White Sea, and no large Gull with black-patterned primaries 

 being found to the eastward, till the Taimyr peninsula is reached." 

 From my own observations and the foregoing descriptions we 

 may clearly separate Larus cac/iinnans and Larus vegce by the dif- 

 ference in color of the feet ; the former having bright yellow feet 

 and the latter flesh-colored. But in doing this we invalidate one 

 of the supposed specific distinctions existing between Larus vegcz 

 and Icarus argentatus, since both are now seen to possess flesh- 

 colored legs. There now remain but two characters said to sejDa- 

 rate these birds ; the color of the mantle and the color of the 

 orbital ring. 



