CHAP. X. 



GULLS. 



99 



number of them were the common gull,* with (it might be) a 

 dozen Siberian herring-gulls among them. We discharged 

 four cartridges of our goose shot into them. Our broadside, 

 fired from a distance, left one dead and one wounded on the 

 field. The smaller species was undoubtedly the common 

 gull with soft parts as follows : 



Bill and legs, gamboge yellow ; inside of mouth, angle of 

 gape, and round the eye, vermilion ; irides, grey ; pupil, 

 blue-black. 



It was not at first so easy to determine to what species the 

 larger gull belonged. The soft parts were as follows : 



Bill and legs, straw yellow, with a large pale vermilion 

 blotch on the angle of the lower mandible ; inside of mouth, 

 straw yellow, with a tinge of orange at the angle of the 

 gape ; irides, pale straw yellow ; pupil, blue-black ; round 

 the eye, the colour of a Seville orange. 



The colour of the mantle of these large gulls was inter- 

 mediate between that of the lesser black-backed gull and 

 the Mediterranean herring-gull, but the wing pattern re- 

 sembled that of the latter species. Upon our return home, 

 with the help of our friend Mr. Howard Saunders of London, 



* The common gull (Larus canits, 

 Linn.) appears to be confined to the 

 eastern hemisphere, breeding both in 

 the temperate and Arctic regions, being 

 a resident in the former and migratory 

 in the latter. It breeds in many parts 

 of the British Islands, and in winter its 

 numbers are increased by arrivals from 

 the north, many of which wander as far 

 south as the Mediterranean. Eastwards 



it is found as far as China, Kamtehatka, 

 and Japan, but in America it is replaced 

 by two very closely allied species, Lams 

 delawarensis (Ord.), and Larus brachy- 

 rhynchus (Rich.). This species is less 

 arctic in its range than the other gull < 

 which we met with in the valley of the 

 Petchora. We did not find it farther 

 north than latitude 67. 



