187f).] MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE S1ERCORARTIN.E. 31/ 



Plate III. at the end of the article requires amendment, and should 

 stand thus : — Fig. 1 . A. hastata, young 5, from a specimen obtained 

 from the nest at Saharunpore, and killed 28th August, 18/3, being 

 the youngest of the three birds obtained on the same occasion. Fig. 

 2. A. hast at a $ , from a specimen after its first moult ; killed Octo- 

 ber 21st, 1874. 



The figures have been reduced to one fourth of the natural size. 



Note. — These birds were made into specimens when in captivity ; 

 thev were not shot. 



3. On the Stercorarihia? or Skua Gulls. 

 By Howard Saunders, F.L.S. &c. 



[Received March 3, 1876.] 



(Plate XXIV.) 



In the following remarks upon the well-marked subfamily of the 

 Laridce, known as the Lestridince, or, more correctly as regards prio- 

 rity of nomenclature, as the Stercorariince, I shall pass over as briefly 

 as possible the points which are already known to most ornithologists, 

 and direct my observations to the synonymy and range of the mem- 

 bers of the group, with incidental remarks upon their progressive 

 stages of plumage. My principal predecessor in this work is Dr. 

 Elliott Coues, who published in the 'Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,' 1863, an elaborate "Review of the 

 Lestridinse," with the primary object of showing that the true " Lestris 

 richardsoniV of Swainson, described in the ' Fauna Boreali- Americana,' 

 p. 433, was a distinct species from the light-breasted form with which 

 most naturalists had united it ; but in his recently published ' Birds 

 of the North-West' (Washington, 1874) he retracts this opinion, in 

 accordance with the views derived from more extended experience. 

 He still, however, adheres to his original plan of dividing the family 

 into two subgenera, Buphagus of Moehring for S. catarrhactes 

 and S. antarcticus, and Stercorarius for the remaining species ; 

 and he continues to employ both the generic and the specific names 

 given by writers previous to the date of the 1 2th edition of Linnaeus's 

 • Systema Naturae ' (17b6), preferring to make the 10th edition the 

 starting-point of his system of nomenclature. Argument on this 

 subject would be futile ; there is nothing to prevent any American 

 naturalist from making his own rules ; but British ornithologists 

 have a recognized code of laws in the Rules of the British Association 

 for 1842, drawn up and signed by the principal naturalists of that 

 day, and generally adopted up to the present time both here and on 

 the continent. In these it is agreed that the principle of prioritv 

 ought not to be carried back beyond the 12th edition of Linnaeus, 

 a solitary exception being made in favour of those genera of Brisson 

 which are additional to those of Linnseus's 12th edition. Mv excuse 



