CLASSIFIED NOTES 513 



2. Distribution. This race replaces the ordinary herring-gull during the breeding season 

 in the Azores, Canaries, and Madeira, and also throughout the Mediterranean, Black and 

 ( 'uspian Seas, through Western Asia east to Lake Baikal, and according to Buturlin also on the 

 Amur and Kamtschatka, while the same writer also states that it breeds in the Gulf of Finland, 

 Lake Onega, the White Sea, and the Vologda government. In the winter months it migrates 

 along the coasts of Africa south to Senegambia and Angola on the west, and the Red Sea and 

 Abyssinia on the east side, while in Asia it winters in the Persian Gulf, Mekran coast, and the 

 Bay of Bengal. One specimen has been shot (Norfolk, 1886) and another seen in England. 

 [F. c. R. J.] 



SCANDINAVIAN BLACKBACKED GULL [Z<mt*///M.v/*///>rH* Linnajus]. 



1. Description. Differs from the British form, which has been recently distinguished, by 

 its slaty black instead of slaty grey mantle and rather longer wing (cf. Dr. P. R. Lowe, Britixk 

 Bird*, vi. p. 2). 



2. Distribution. Scandinavia east to the Dwina. Two recorded from Suffolk coast in 

 1881 and 1887 (Brit. Bir<l, vii. p. 59). See also under Lesser Blackbacked-Gull, vol. iii. p. 126. 

 [F. c. R. J.] 



IVORY-GULL [r<nji>/i/i!la fbiirmu (Phipps). Snow-bird. French, mouette blanche; German, 

 Elfenltcin-Muve]. 



1. Description. May be at once distinguished from all other gulls by having the entire 

 plumage white, quite devoid of markings. Length 18 in. [457 mm.]. The wings are long, 

 extending beyond the extremity of the tail ; the iris is dark brown, fleshy eyelid of a brick-red 

 colour ; tips of mandible yellow, shading into French grey at the base ; legs and feet black. 

 The immature differs from the adult in having a few rounded brownish grey markings on the 

 back of the neck, mantle, scapulars, and wing-coverts; and each primary, as well as the tail, 

 has a large spot of the same colour at the tip; feathers at the base of the culmen and on 

 the sides of the throat tipped with bluish grey. [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. This is a circumpolar species, which breeds in Spitsbergen, Storoen, 

 King Karl's Land, Franz Josef Land, Ltitke Land (Novaya Zemlya), Bennett and Herald 

 Islands in the Old World, and on the Polynia Isles, Prince Patrick Island, Cape Krabbe, 

 Grinnell Land, Davis Strait, and North-east Greenland in the New World. In winter it has 

 been recorded about forty-seven times from the British Isles, and also from the Faeroes, the coasts 

 of Scandinavia and Finland, and exceptionally from Schleswig, the mouth of the Sornme in 

 France, and Lausanne in Switzerland. In America its winter range extends to British Columbia, 

 Ontario, and Long Island. [F. c. R. J.] 



[THE SHEATHBILL or KELP-PIGEON [Ckion -is alba (Ginelin). Family: Chionididcv].H.a& 

 been obtained in Ireland on one occasion (Co. Down, 1892), but may have been an escaped bird. 

 It is an Antarctic species, breeding on the Falklands and South Orkney Isles. [F. c. R. j.] ] 



THE PRATINCOLES AND COURSERS 



[ORDER: Charadriiformea. FAMILY: Glareolidcc] 

 PRATINCOLE [GlAreola pratlncola (Linnaeus). Collared-pratincole. French, perdrix de. 



mer; German, Halsband-Giarol ; Italian, pernice di mare]. 



1. Description. Distinguished from the blackwinged-pratincole by its chesnut axil- 

 laries, whereas in the latter species these feathers are black like the under wing- 

 coverts. Total length about 9*5 in. [238 mm.]. The sexes are alike in coloration, and no 

 seasonal change takes place. The adult has the upper parts, including the wing-coverts, olive- 

 brown very slightly tinged with greenish ; upper tail-coverts and basal half of tail, which is 



