276 Contribniions to the Ornithologi/ of India, Sjr. 



In the full plumage the whole head^ neck, all round, entire low- 

 er parts, rump, upper tail coverts, and tail, white, everywhere ting- 

 ed rosy, but most faintly so on the head and lateral tail feathers, 

 The entire mantle including- the secondaries and tertiaries and all 

 the coverts, (except those about the carpal joint, and the greater 

 and median coverts of the first four or five primaries, which are 

 white,) together with the axillaries and wing lining are a 

 delicate pale bluish French grey, palest on the back tertiaries 

 and axillaries. The first primary is entirely white, except the 

 extreme tip, and the greater portion of the outer web which 

 are black; the second to the fourth primaries are white, with 

 successively broader and broader black tips, and an increasingly 

 broader black or blackish brown band on the inner margin of 

 the inner web ; the fifth prima,ry is similar to the fourth, but has 

 a narrow white tip, the white of the outer web shaded with 

 grey, and the inner web, slaty dusky ; the sixth primary is 

 entirely pale French grey, slightly darker than the coverts with 

 the white tip, and a broad blackish brown subterminal band ; 

 the remaining four primaries are entirely French grey. 



Almost all the birds killed were adults ; two in which the 

 colors were duller and the tippings of the primaries browner, 

 and in which some of the secondaries have brown streaks on the 

 outer webs towards the tips, have the tips of the tail feathers 

 blackish brown, or in one dull wood brown, for about 0*75 of an 

 inch ; these birds have also less white on the primaries. 



To a casual observer these birds closely approximate to L. 

 Hdibundus in winter plumage ; but they may be very readily 

 distinguished from these ; they never get the dark hood that 

 Hdibundus does, and they never have the dark spot in front of 

 the eye and behind the ear coverts that ridihimdus always 

 exhibits in the cold weather ; the bills also are considerably 

 longer, and in proportion to their length slenderer than those 

 of ridibundtis ; the gonys especially is conspicuously longer, mea- 

 suring from the angle to the tip in this species in males from 

 0'57 to 0"65 j while in the same sex in ridibundus, it measures 

 from 0*45 to 5 ; lastly, the perfect adults in this species want 

 entirely the black margin on the inner web of the first primary, 

 while this is as far as my experience goes invariably present 

 €ver in the fullest breeding plumage of ridibandus. 



I may add that I never saw this bird except along the sea coast. 



979.— Larus iclithysetus, Pall 



This magnificent gull was not uncommon on the Muneher 

 lake, and at sonje few of the largest of the others of the inland 

 waters. At Kurrachee and all along the Sindh and Mekran 



