574 



MESSRS. SCLATER AND SALVIN 



[June 20, 



This is a very distinct species, quite erroneously united by some 

 authors to L. belcheri, and by others to L. modestus. The young 

 bird is of a uniform brown, very similar to the corresponding stage 

 of Larus heermanni, but immediately recognizable by its much 

 stouter bill. The adult bird is of a nearly uniform cinereous, with 

 a well-marked blackish hood ; the wing-primaries are black ; the tail 



the upper coverts greyish white and 

 The legs and feet are black ; the bill 

 urjper mandible reddish. The small 



cinereous like the body, with 

 the under coverts still paler, 

 black, with the point of the 



ciliary plumes all round the eye are of a bright reddish orange. 



3. Larus heermanni. 



Larus heermanni, Cass. Proc. Acad. N. Sc. Phil. vi. 187 (1852), 

 et B. Calif, p. 28, pi. 5. 



B/asijms heermanni, Bp. Consp. Av. ii. p. 211; Band, B. N. A. 

 p. 849; Coues, Ibis, 1864, p. 388; Salvin, Ibis, 18CG, p. In8. 



Hub. Coast of Western Mexico (Abert) ; Pacific coast of Guate- 

 mala (Salvin). 



Fig. 



3. 



Head of Larus heermanni (reduced one-third). 



Our reason for including this Gull in the list of Neotropical 

 Laridce is its occurrence on the western coast of Guatemala, where, 

 however, Salvin only obtained it in immature plumage. 



From the Museum of the University of Cambridge we have re- 

 ceived a very fine series of skins of this species for examination. 

 These were collected by the late Mr. James Hepburn, F.Z.S., on 

 various points of the coasts of British Columbia and California. A 

 very slight examination of them is sufficient to show how mistaken 

 Prof. Schlegel was in uniting Larus heermanni to L. belcheri and L. 

 fuliffinosus. L. heermanni is in plumage most like L. belcheri, but 

 immediately distinguishable by its paler mantle and grey lower back, 

 and by the tail being black at its base and merely tipped with white. 

 In the present species also (see fig. 3) the frontal feathers advance 

 along the nasal grooves, on each side of the culmen, nearly up to 

 the opening of the nostrils. In L. belcheri (as shown in fig. 4, 

 p. 575). the nasal grooves are bare of feathers to a very much greater 

 extent. 



