524 MR. H. SAUNDKRS ON l>AKID.« [Juiie 6, 



mantle ashy brown, the tips of the feathers margined with wliite ; 

 upper wing-coverts and secondaries white ; primaries, 1-5 black with 

 greater part of inner weh white, 6 and 7 white barred with dusky, 

 8-10 pure white. Tail much forked, the outer feathers nearly 

 white, the others handed with brown and tipped with white ; rump 

 white shghtly mottled with brown. Undeiparts white. Bill horn- 

 black ; tarsi and feet livid brown. The bill is ])roportionately 

 longer, slenderer, and more curved than in X. sahmii, from which 

 it also differs in having a considerable bare space between the base 

 of the feathers and the nares. The first primary which shows the 

 slightest tip of white is the 5tli, and there is less white at the tips of 

 the upper ones than in the young of X. sabinii. 



The feathers are all quite fresh, and, reasoning from analogy, I 

 should think that this example cannot have been more than three 

 or four months old. Where, then, are the head-quarters of this 

 mysterious Gull ? It would seem by this specimen th.at its breeding- 

 time corresponds to that of the northern iiemisphere, and that, 

 like some other Gulls, it passes southwards to escape the northern 

 winter ; but as yet nothing is known. It is, however, somewhat 

 remarkable that 'American naturalists who have devoted so much 

 attention to the exploration of the coast of the Pacific, from Van- 

 couver's Island down to Mexico, have discovered no trace of it ; 

 nor have repeated visits to the Galapagos produced more thau the 

 isolated adult specimen above noticed. Capt. Markham's valuable 

 acquisition has now made us acquainted with the first plumage of 

 this extremely rare bird ; and the proof of the existence of this long- 

 lost species may be expected to awaken an interest which will pro- 

 bably in a few years lead to the discovery of its real habitat. 



Xema sabinii (Sabine). 



Larus sabini, J. Sabine, Tr. Linn. Soc. xii. p. 520 (1818). 



Xema sabinii (Sabine), Saunders, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 209. 



[Nos. 70 & 71 (c? 2), Callao Bay, Dec. 1881. Eyes black.] 



Two specimens of this circumpolar species in the winter plumage of 

 the second year : i. e. adult, but without the hood. In the primaries 

 the white bottoms of the tips are so completely worn away as to give 

 them the appearance of having been cut off squarely, showing that 

 these flight-feathers are not renewed until January or February, as 

 in the case of many of the Terns. 



The occurrence of this species at Callao, in 12° S., further increases 

 our knowledge of its winter range on the Peruvian coast, the most 

 southern locality hitherto recorded being Tumbez in about 8° S. 

 (Scl. & Salv. P."Z. S. 1878, p. 141), on the authority of Prof. Steere. 

 On the Atlantic side this species has not yet been recorded as an 

 autumn and winter visitant beyond the coast of France and the 

 Bermudas. 



Lartjs franklini, Sw. & Rich. 



Larus franklini, Sw. & Rich. P. Bor.-Am., Birds, p. 424 (1831) ; 

 Scl. & Salv. P.Z. S. 18G1, p. 5/7 ; Saund. op. cit. 1878, p. 195 

 [No. 11, no. 12 ( ? ), no. 13 ( cJ ), no. 14 ( ? ), Coquimbo Bay, 



