Contributions to the Ornithology of India, ^c. 273 



978 ter. — Larus occidentalis, A.udubon.—L. bo- 



realis, Brandt nee, Bruch. — L. argentatuSj var. 

 cacliinnans, Schrenh. Ueisen, I. p. 504. 



This species^ hitherto unrecorded from India^ is abundant be- 

 yond measure at Kurrachee. It stalks about on the harbour 

 quays, amongst people and carts, as crows do elsewhere, and it 

 cono-reorates bv thousands round the reed-built huts where a short 

 distance outside Kurrachee the fishermen bring- their fish for sale' 

 to the Kurrachee fishmong-ers. Associated with it may be seen the 

 herring'-g-ull, but whereas the latter is found all over the coun- 

 try inland, the Asiatic herring--gull as this species may be called, 

 never quits the immediate neig-hbourhood of the sea. 



I found it all the way up the Mekran Coast, I shot it at Muscat 

 and it hung about the steamer all the way from Kurrachee to Bom- 

 bay. I have no doubt that it was an adult of this species that Dr. 

 Jerdon sent from the Coromandel Coast and that Mr. Blyth ac- 

 cepted a,s fusc'us. The color of its mantle indeed closely approaches 

 that of fvjsciis ; being exactly intermediate in tint between that 

 of Larm rnarinus and of the common herring-gull. This dark 

 mantle renders it conspicuous amongst all the other gulls of the 

 Kurrachee Harbour, and I myself, when I first saw it, made sure 

 that I had at last secured the lesser black-backed gull that I had 

 so long and vainly searched for. 



Except as regards color, and there the difference is very marked, 

 this species is inseparable from its European prototype argentatus. 

 If you compare single specimens you fancy that you can establish 

 differences in the length of bill, tarsi, and toes, shape of nostrils, 

 angulation of gonys and the like, but with twenty or thirty 

 specimens of each before one, it is manifest that no single differ- 

 ence except that of color holds, unless, indeed, occidentalis averages 

 slightly larger. I measured a number carefully in the flesh, and 

 the. following are the results : 



Males, length, 24 to 24-5 ; expanse, 59 to 60 : wing> 

 16-75 to 17-8; tarsus, 2-57 to 27; mid toe and claw, 2-3 to 

 2*4; bill at front, 2-04 to 2*25 ; from anterior margins of nostrils 

 to tip, 1 to 1-03 ; weight, 2 lb 6 ozs. to 2 lb 12 ozs. 



Females, length, 22 to 23*5; expanse, 55-5 to 58; wing, 

 16-5 to 17; tarsus, 2-5 to 2-68; mid toe and claw, 2*2 to 2-41 ; 

 bill at front, 1"9 to 2*15; from anterior margins of nostrils to 

 tip, 0-87 to i-03; weight, 1 lb 14 ozs. to 2 lbs. 



The irides vary from brown in the young to pale brown, 

 brownish yellow, and pale yellow to white in the old birds ; the 

 legs and feet vary partly according to age and partly according 

 to season; from pale pinkish duskj; to pale greyish fleshy, pale 



