£74 Contributions to the Ornithology of India, ^c. 



yellowish fleshy and pale creamy yellow, to pale yellow in the 

 adults. The bill of the adult is wax yellow, with bright red patch 

 on lower mandible towards the tip, and with the g-ape and eyelids 

 orange red ; less advanced birds have the bills either black, fleshy 

 wh^te at base of lower mandible, or pale livid, a black patch near 

 the tip of both mandibles, or a greenish white, with a similar 

 black patch, or with the same dusky patch and an orange one at 

 the angle of the lower mandible, or whitish with an orange 

 patch towards the tip of the lower mandible, with a corresponding 

 but fainter yellowish one on the upper mandible. 



As for the plumage it is precisely similar to that of argentatus 

 except that the whole mantle and the basal portion of the pri- 

 maries on both webs is a comparatively dark slaty grey instead 

 of the pale blue grey of our European herring'-gull, and also 

 in my opinion, that the striae of the head are more numerously 

 set, and those of the back of the neck larger and darker in the 

 winter plumage of our present species. 



If, as I believe I have rightly identified this species, I am at 

 a loss to understand why Professor Schlegel has placed this 

 species in a different section of the Laridoe to the common her- 

 ring-gull. He himself remarks, that ^"^it is absolutely like 

 argentatus, from which it is only distinguishable in the adult 

 plumage, when the primaries, and the grey of the mantle and 

 wings are much darker than in this species, though paler than in 

 L. fwscus." As regards the young birds, until a few of the grey 

 feathers of the adult begin to appear on the centre of the back, 

 I am unable to give any constant rule for distinguishing them 

 from those of argentatus ; but the first feather of the perfect 

 plumage that shows out, betrays at once whether the youngster 

 is an European or an Asiatic. 



Heretofore this species has been only recorded from the West 

 coast of America, northward from California, and the east coast 

 of Asia, from Macao northwards, but it has also been observed 

 inland from Lake Baikal northwards. 



Mr. Gray separates occidenta lis , And., from America, as distinct, 

 but I prefer to follow Schlegel here. 



If Mr. Gray is correct, our bird will stand as borealis, Brandt, 

 nee. Bruch. 



978 quat,—'L2bVus Lambruschini, Bonap.—L, 



tenuirostrisj Temm. — L. gelastes,^ Licht. — L. roseus. 

 Gene. 



This lovely species is numerically the most abundant of all 

 that frequent the Kurraehee Harbour, and all the way up the Gulf 

 of Oman in suitable localities, I met with vast flocks of it. Towards 



