I30 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



(June, 1905. 



R©Lre Living AnimoLls 

 in London. 



By P. L. ScLATKR, Dk.Sc., F.K.S. 



v.— Scoresby's Gull iLeucophaus scoreshii). 

 This uell-markcd species of gull was first described 

 in 1823 by the late Dr. T. S. Trail in a paper read 

 before the W'ernerian Society of Natural History, and 

 subsequently published in the fourth volume of that 

 Society's " Proceedings." It was named by Trail 

 after Scoresby, the " celebrated Navigator of Icy 

 Seas," and the description was based on a specimen, 

 then in til ■ Miisriini of tin- Rovnl Iiistiliitidn at IJver- 



-hl 



" frequently laying its two eggs in the communities 

 of the large Dominican (iull, Lanis tfoniiiiicanus, but it 

 also has separate breeding-places." Kggs received 

 from Capt. Abbott are in the collection of the Britisii 

 Museum. 



More recent intellii^ence respecting -Scoresby's Ciiill 

 in the I-"alkland Islands has lately been procured by 

 Mr. Rupert \"allentin, who informs us* that this bird, 

 locally called " The Dolphin," is fairly common in the 

 neighbourhood of Stanley, Port Louis, and Roy Cove, 

 but that none were seen after the end of I-'ebruary. 

 At Stanley and Port .\rthur both adult and young speci- 

 mens were always to be met with near the slaughter- 

 houses in quest of offal in the months of November and 

 December. .\t Rov Co\e Mr. ^'allentin frequently 

 ohsrrwd tlu-ni walkin- '>n llir nM:itliis^ ln-ds u( kelp 



v.— Scoresby's QuII. 



Ill that |)iirt engaged in the whale-tishery at the .South 

 .Shetland Islands. .Sctjresby's gull is, in fact, ex- 

 clusively an inhabitant of the .Antarctic seas, and does 

 not occur in the North Polar region, where the naviga- 

 tor after whom it is named made so many discoveries. 

 X'igors had, no doubt, overlooked Trail's description, 

 or he would not have renamed this bird in 1H2S, when 

 it was called by him Imtiis lutmalorlyiutits frf>m its bright 

 red bill, and was subsequently figured under the same 

 name by Jardine and Selby in their " Illustrations of 



(I ihillKT l)V 



and feeding on the crustaceans at 

 the decaying seaweeds. 



By recent authorities Scoresby's Gull lia.> been 

 separated from the more typical forms under the 

 generic title Lcucpplniui. Mr. Howard Saunders, our 

 principal authority on this group of birds, points out 

 that it has " a remarkably short, stout crimson bill, 

 coarse feet with somewhat excised webs, and a decided 

 hood in the immature stage, which wears off as the 

 bird attains adult plumage." These characters were 



Ornithology." Vigors' specimens were procured by I fully shown in the two specimens of this rem:irkabie 



Capt. King at Port Famine in Patagonia, during the 

 voyage of the Beagle, and nearly all the subsequent 

 explorers of the coasts of the NIagellan-Slraits and 

 Cape Horn appear to have met with this gull, which 

 seems to be by no means uncommon in far southern 

 latitudes. 



This gull also inhabits the Falkland Islands, and, as 

 recorded by Capt. Abbott, breeds there in December, 



species which reached the Zoological .Society's Cardcns 

 in October, 1903. One of these died in l-'ebruary, 

 1904, the other, which is still living, is the original of 

 the accompanying drawing by Mr. Goodchild. .So far 

 as I know these are the only specimens of this bird tli.it 

 have ever been brought alive to Europe. 



' " MttiuhisUr Mtmoirs," Vol. XLVIll. (1904), No. 2j. 



