LARtJS. 305 



band, and then a subterminal black bar and white tip ; on the 

 second the grey wedge comes farther down the inner web, the rest 

 is black, except the white tip about half an inch long, and in some 

 birds a white spot near the tip ; in the third and subsequent 

 primaries the grey base comes farther and farther down both webs, 

 the black is reduced to a subterminal band and finally disappears. 



The only difference in winter is that there are almost always a 

 few brown spots on the crown and hind neck. 



Young birds are brown above with broad whitish edges to the 

 feathers ; quills blackish brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 white, with large brown spots : rectriees dark brown, mottled with 

 white towards the base and tipped white ; lower surface brownish 

 at first, then white, blotched with brown at the sides. In the 

 next phase the back-feathers and scapulars are irregularly banded 

 with light brown, which afterwards becomes grey, and there is a 

 gradual passage to the adult- plumage, which is said only to be 

 attained after the fourth autumnal moult. 



Bill in adults yellow, with a bright red patch on lower mandible 

 near the tip ; gape and eyelids orange-red ; irides pale yellow to 

 white ; legs and feet pale yellow : young birds have the bill black 

 at the end, fleshy white at the base ; irides brown ; legs greyish 

 fleshy (Hume). 



Length of males 24 ; tail 7 ; wing 17 ; tarsus 2'75 ; middle toe 

 and claw 2-4 ; bill from gape 3. Females are slightly smaller. 



Distribution. This Gull breeds in N.E. Europe and Siberia, and 

 visits the coast of Somaliland, Southern Arabia, Baluchistan, and 

 Western India in winter, extending south on the Malabar coast as 

 far as Ratnagiri or farther, but not occurring, so far as is known, 

 on the east coast of the Peninsula. It is particularly abundant at 

 Karachi. 



Habits, fyc. A comparatively familiar bird, often haunting towns 

 and villages near the sea-shore. Hume found it abundant about 

 the fishermen's houses at Karachi. The mantle does not appear 

 to become darker in the breeding-season as that of L. fuscus 

 does. 



1495. Larus cachinnans. The Yellow-legged Herring-Gull. 



Lama cachinnans, Pallas, Zooqr. Rosso-Asiat. ii, p. 318 (1811) ; 



Sounders, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 169 ; Hume, Cat. no. 978 bis ; Sanies, 



Birds Bom. p. 423 : Saunders, Cat. B. M. xxv, p. 206. 

 Larus argentatus, apnd Hume 8f Hcnders. Lah. to Yark. p. 299 ; 



Hume, S. F. i, p. 270 ; ii, p. 50 ; vii, p. 463 j Blanf. Eastern 



Persia, p. 290. 



This species only differs from L. ciffmis in having the mantle in 

 adults much paler, light bluish grey instead of slate-grey. Young 

 birds are absolutely undistinguishable. The soft parts and the 

 dimensions are similar. The present species is merely a climatic 

 or geographical race of the Common Herring-Gull, L. argentatus^ 

 distinguished by slight differences in the colours of the i'eet and 



VOL. IV. X 



