311 



LARID.E. 



LARIDCE 



3 



ones smaller, or gland-like, or absent. Stamens 6, opposite the petals ; 

 filaments united into a tube, or even distinct ; anthers turned out- 

 wards, rarely inwarda, 2-celled, opening by a longitudinal slit. The 

 female flowers as before, but larger, with 6 very imperfect stamens. 

 Carpels distinct, 3, rarely 6 or 9, 1-celled, with a short style and a 

 single stigma. Two of the genera inhabit the cooler parts of South 

 America, the remainder are from the temperate parts of China. 

 JBuraaaiu is the only tropical form. These plants appear to be harmless. 

 Some of them are eaten by the natives of Japan and India. 



LARDIZABALADS. [LARDIZABALACE.E.] 



LA'RID^E, the name given by Leach "to the family of Birds 

 vernacularly known as Sea-Gulls, Sea-Mews, or Gulls, belonging to 

 Mr. Vigors's fifth order Natatores. 



Willughby, in his ' Ornithology,' under his section (vi.) ' Of Sea- 

 Gulls, called in Latine Lari,' says hi hia first chapter of that section 

 entitled 'Of Gulls in General' "Gulls are a whole-footed fowl, with 

 an indifferent long, narrow, sharp-pointed bill, a little crooked at the 

 end ; oblong nostrils ; long and strong wings ; short legs; small feet 

 (for they do not swim much) ; a light body, but invested with many 

 and thick-set feathers ; a carrion carkass, the fat that is sticking to 

 the skin (as in other birds) ; much upon the wing, very clamorous, 

 hungry, and piscivorous. 



"These we divide into two kinds: 1st, the greater, which have 

 tails composed of feathers of equal length, and an angular prominency 

 or knob on the lower chap of the bill underneath to strengthen it, 

 that they may more strongly hold fishes ; 2nd, the lesser, which have 

 a forked tail, and no knob on the bill (or, he adds in a marginal note, 

 ' but a very small one'). Both kinds may be divided into pied or 

 particoloured, and gray or brown." 



Willughby places the Gulls between the 'Douckers, or Loons, 

 called in Latine Colymbi,' and the 'whole-footed birds with broad 

 bills,' the first members of which are 'the Goose-kind,' commencing 

 with the Swan. 



Ray's 'Synopsis' places the Gulls between the Colymbi and the 

 'Aves Palmipedes rostro in extremo adunco, non serrate,' Avis 

 Diomedea (Albatross), Shearwater, Puffinus, &c. ; and he describes 

 them as " Palmipede Birds, with a narrow, sharp, but not hooked 

 (adunco) bill, long-winged, and much given to flight (volaticse), called 

 Lari, in English Guls or Sea-Mews, and in some places Sea-Cobs," 

 with the following definition : " The marks of Gulls are a strong, 

 oblong, narrow, and acute bill, which is a little curved at the extre- 

 mity, but in the smaller species straighter ; nostrils oblong ; wings 

 oblong and strong ; feet small ; body very light, clothed with many 

 and thick feathers ; and to be clamourous, much on the wing, hungry, 

 and piscivorous." 



He divides the Gulls into three sections, namely : 



1. The Three-Toed Gulls, 'Lari tridactyli, seu postico digito 

 carentes ;' 



2. Four-Toed Gulls, 'Lari tetradactyli, seu postico digito donati, and 



3. Fork-Tailed Gulls, 'Lari minores, caudu forcipatft' (Terns, &c.). 

 Brisson placed in his twenty-third order (consisting of birds with 



four toes, the three anterior joined together by membranes and the 

 posterior separate, and with a toothless bill), the Gulls, Petrels, Puifins, 

 Terns, Sea-Skimmer, or Rhyncopsalia (Rhynchops, Linn.). Ac. 



The second division of the third order (Amere) of Linnaeus consists 

 of those web-footed water-fowl which have an edentulous bill, and 

 the following are the genera of that order : Rhynchopi, Diomedea, 

 Alca, Procellaria, Pelecanus, Larus, Sterna, and Colymbus. 



M. Lacdpede's second sub-class of birds consists of those which 

 have the lower part of the leg denuded of feathers, or many toes 

 united by a large membrane. The first division of this sub-class 

 comprises those birds which have three anterior toes, and one toe or 

 none behind. In the first sub-division, the first order (the twenty- 

 lecond reckoning from the beginning), consisting of palmiped water- 

 binls with a hooked beak, we find Diomedea and Procellaria, among 

 other genera ; and in the third (twenty-third reckoning from the 

 beginning) are placed, also among other genera, Rhynchopi. In the 

 fourth (twenty-fifth reckoning from the beginning), with a straight 

 and slender bill, we have the genus Sterna ; and, in the next but one 

 (twenty-seventh), bill tumid (bee renfle'), we have the genus Larus, 

 the intervening genus being Recurvirostra (Avosets). 



M. Dume'ril's third family (twenty-second in the series), consists of 

 the long-winged Palmipedes, and includes Rhynchopi, the Terns, the 

 Avosets, the Petrels, the Albatrosses, and the Sea-Mews. 



In the method of M. Meyer, we find the first sub-order (Coniroslres) 

 of hi* eleventh order, Natatores, comprising among other genera those 

 of Sterna, Lartu, and Letris. 



The Long-Winged Natatorct (Longipennes) of Illiger consist of the 

 genera Rhynchops, Sterna, Larva, and Lestrit ; and his Natatoret with 

 tulmlar nostrils (Tvbinares), of Procellaria, Haladroma, PachyptUa, 

 and IHonudea. 



Cuvier'B Long-Winged Palmipede! comprise the Petrels, Albatrosses, 

 Gulls, Terns, and Rhynchopi. 



The fourth family (Pelagians) of M. Vieillot's first tribe (Teleopodes) 

 of the order Natatoret consist of Stercoraria, the Gulls, Terns, and 

 Rhynchopi. 



M. Temminck places the whole of the Palmipede! in one order. 



M. De Blainville's Natatores consist of the Macropteres (Gulls), the 



Syphonorhiniens (Petrels), the Cryptorhiuiens (Pelicans), and the 

 Colymbiens. In his method as developed by M. Lherminier, the Gulls 

 (Larus) and the Petrels (Procellaria,) are placed in his first sub-class, 

 or Normal Birds. 



Mr. Vigors ('Natural Affinities that connect the Orders and Families 

 of Birds,' 'Linn. Trans.,' vol. xiv.) states that Phaeton, a genus 

 belonging to the immediately preceding family (Pelecanidce), bears a 

 considerable resemblance in general appearance and habits to Sterna, 

 belonging to the succeeding family of Laridce, the structure of their 

 foot alone effecting a separation between them. Kven here however, 

 he remarks, we may observe the gradation that exists between the feet 

 of the two families ; the web that unites the toes of the Tropic-Bird, 

 as well as of the Frigate-Bird, being but half the size of that of the 

 Pelecanidce in general ; and thus their foot preserves a connection with 

 that of the Terns, where the same membrane is equally contracted. 

 " We thus," continues Mr. Vigors, " enter the family of Laridce by 

 means of Sterna, with which Rhynchops (Linn.) most intimately 

 accords in habits and external characters, notwithstanding the dissi- 

 militude of the bill. The Sterna, Anglica, or Gull-Billed Tern of 

 Colonel Montagu, conducts us from these genera to the groups which 

 compose the Liuinean Larus, now justly subdivided into two genera, 

 the Leslris (111.), and Larus of authors. From this group we are led 

 to the genera Diomedea (Linn.) and Haladroma (111.), which are 

 characterised by the absence of the hind toe, by means of the species 

 Larus tridactylus (Lath.), where, though the hind toe is not absolutely 

 deficient, as might be inferred from the specific name, there appears 

 but the rudiment of one, or rather a stump without a nail. The 

 last-mentioned genus, Haladroma, originally belonged to the Procel- 

 laria, (Linn.), and was separated from it by its tridactyle foot. Even 

 in this character however it forms a passage from Larus to the groups 

 that compose the genuine Procellaria, all of which are distinguished 

 by the singular peculiarity of having no true hind toe, but a nail 

 adhering to the tarsus in its place. We thus arrive at the Petrels, 

 separated into the groups of the Procellaria (Auct.), PachyptUa (111.), 

 Puflinus (Ray), and the section denominated by M. Temminck Lea 

 Petrels Heroudelles. These two latter groups appear to lead us back 

 to the Terns, or Sea-Swallows, from whence we started. The whole 

 of this family, which corresponds with the Longipennes of M. Cuvier, 

 is distinctly characterised by the strength and expansiveness of their 

 wings, with the aid of which they traverse immeasurable tracts of 

 the ocean in search of their food, and support their flight at consider- 

 able distances from land, seldom having recourse to their powers of 

 swimming. We may thus discern the gradual succession by which 

 the characters peculiar to the order descend from the typical groups 

 that swim and dive well and frequently, but make little use of their 

 wings for flight, to the present groups, which are accustomed to fly 

 much, but seldom employ their powers of swimming, and never dive. 

 The family of Laridce may thus be observed to stand at the very 

 extremity of the order ; and it assumes, as I have already observed, 

 in conjunction with the other extreme groups, much of the habits of 

 the land birds. A portion of the group before us, the Petrels, seem 

 even to employ their feet in their own element as if on land, walking 

 as it were on the surface of the waters. We have thus arrived at the 

 termination of the last family of the order, and have to look for its 

 connection with the first. This link is immediately supplied by the 

 before-mentioned genus, PachyptUa, in which the bill, broad and 

 depressed at the base, assumes the character of that of the Anatidce. 

 There is indeed a considerable approximation aud interchange of 

 character between the two groups. The bill of some species of Anser 

 may be observed to become gradually less broad and more compressed, 

 so as to bring them closely to the Petrels; while again the web. that 

 connects their toes is equally curtailed in extent, until in one species, 

 the Semipalmated Goose of Dr. Latham, figured in the supplement 

 to his ' Synopsis,' we may observe no greater web than may be seen 

 among many of the Sternce. On the other hand, the same membrane 

 is so extended in some of the Petrels, as to equal the most dilated 

 web observable among the Anates. We may also add that the 

 divisions of the Procellarice, as they approach the Anatidce, become 

 gradually more nocturnal in their habits, and thus adopt a character 

 common to a great portion of the latter family. Here then in the 

 fifth and last order of birds we perceive the families of which it is 

 composed following each other in a regular series of affinities, which 

 returns into itself with a continuity similar to that which has been 

 equally apparent in every other great department of the class." 



M. Latreille places the Gulls, Puffins, Pelecanoides, Petrels, Alba- 

 trosses, Terns, Noddies, PachyptUa, and Rhyncliops, in his third family 

 (Longipennes), of his seventh order (Palmipedes), belonging, with the 

 Echassiers (Grallatores), to his second section, Aquatic Birds. 



Prince C. L. Bonaparte, in his 'Tabella Analitica de" Generi' 

 (' Specchio Comparative '), makes the Longipennes the first family of 

 his order Anseres. He divides the family into two sections : 

 1, ' Narici senza margine rilevato,' consisting of the genera Jlhynchops, 

 Sterna, Larus, and Lestrit; 2, 'Narici tubulose," containing the genera 

 Procellaria and Diomedea. 



M. Lesson, in his ' Projet," makes the Palmipedes (Natatores) his 

 eighth order, being the third of his second section, Aquatic Birds. 

 In the ' Table Mdthodique,' at the end of his ' Manuel,' his fourth 

 family of Palmipedes is named Laridce, aud consists of the genera 



