830 LARUS 



Hob. Europe generally, north to about 53 N. lat. and of rare 

 occurrence in Iceland ; wintering in the Mediterranean and the 

 Nile valley ; Eastern Asia, north to Kamchatka ; Japan, Corea, 

 and China; wintering in the Persian Gulf; has once occurred 

 in Labrador, 



In general habits it resembles its allies, and is not found 

 only on the sea but tolerably far inland, where it feeds on the 

 worms turned up by the plough, its food consisting of small 

 fish, sand-eels, mollusca, and small Crustacea, worms, and insects. 

 Its flight is light and buoyant, and its cry is shrill and somewhat 

 harsh. It breeds both on the coast and on inland lakes, making 

 a, nest of seaweed, grass, &c., and in May deposits 2 or 3, usually 

 3, eggs, which are brownish olive, marked with dull purplish 

 brown shell blotches and dark brown surface spots and blotches, 

 in size measuring about 2'29 by 1'63. 



In North America the present species is replaced by a slightly 

 smaller species, L. Irackyrhynchus, Richardson, which has once 

 been obtained in the Kurile Islands. 



1141. SLENDER-BILLED GULL. 

 LARUS GELASTES. 



Larus gelastes, Thienem. Fortpflanz. Vog. Eur. pt. v. p. 22, No. 351 

 (1838) ; Dresser, viii. p. 389, pi. 601, fig. 2 ; Saunders, Cat. B. Br. 

 Mus. xxv. p. 230 ; Blanf. F. Brit. Ind. Birds, iv. p. 303 ; L. tenui- 

 rosiris, Temm. Man. d'Orn. iv. p. 478 (1840) ; L. columbinus, Golo- 

 watschow, Bull. Soc. Mosc. xxvii. p. 435, Tab. iv. (1854)s, 



Galliano roseo, Ital. 



$ ad. (Spain). Head, neck, tail, and entire under parts white, the 

 under parts suffused with delicate rose-pink ; 1st primary with the outer 

 web black except near the tip, and tipped with black ; 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 

 with the outer web white, the inner brownish French-grey, becoming dark 

 brown on the edge, all the quills broadly black at the tip ; mantle pearl- 

 grey ; wing-coverts rather darker ; secondaries without white margins ; 

 bill red ; legs, feet, and edges of eyelids coral- red ; iris pale straw-yellow, 

 nearly white. Culmen 2'1, wing 12*0, tail 4'5, tarsus 2'1 inch. Sexes 

 alike, and in winter scarcely differing, but the bill is orange-yellow and the 

 legs lemon-yellow. 



Hal. The coasts of the Mediterranean ; East Africa to Keneh 

 in Upper Egypt and Jeddah on the Red Sea ; West Africa south 

 to Senegal ; Asia Minor, the Black Sea and the Caspian, east to 



