LABUS. 95 



"Adult female. Very similar but, as a rule, somewhat browner on the 

 shoulders and with less lead-color 011 the throat, slightly smaller, and 

 with a weaker bill. 



"Immature. 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 LARINyE. 



Of larger size than the terns; body and bill heavier; tail square or 

 nearly so. 



Genus LARUS Linnaeus, 1758. 



Characters same as those given for the Subfamily. 



Species. 



a 1 . Smaller; length, 400 mm. ; wing, 300 ridibundus (p. 95) 



a 2 . Larger; length, 600 mm. ; wing, 450 vegae (p. 97) 



86. LARUS RIDIBUNDUS Linnaeus. 

 .LAUGHING GULL. 



Larus ridibundus LINN^US, Syst. Nat. ed. 12 (1766), 1, 225; SAUXDERS, 

 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 25, 207; SHABPE, Hand-List (1899), 1, 

 140; GATES, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1901), 1, 208; MCGREGOR 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- 

 line 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 



