Contributions to the Ornithology/ of India, 8fe. 'il% 



Coasts^ and again in the neighbourhood of Muscat, I constantly no- 

 ticed it. 



As Professor Schlegel separates our Indian race as L. minor. 

 I took the trouble to secure a good series of these, seventeen in num- 

 ber, old and young, in winter plumage and in full breeding plum- 

 age, in order to test the correctness of his conclusions. He says, that 

 Larus ichthy^Rtiis from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean 

 has a wing from 18-6 to 197 ; while our smaller (?) race which 

 he says appears to replace this in Bengal, has a wing of from 

 17*5 to 17-88. Now out of my twelve males from Sindh, the smal- 

 lest wing measures 19, the largest 20. Of the five females, 

 the smallest measures 18-5, the largest 18-9 ; but it may be said 

 that Professor Schlegel refers only to Bengal, so I compared speci- 

 mens which I had from the Nujjufghur Jheel, and I found that, 

 these agreed in length of wing with the Sindh birds. Now 

 those from the Nujjufghur Jheel are Bengal birds ; as a rule 

 you only get them there early in the autumn and pretty late in the 

 spring ; a few hang about the place the whole cold season, but 

 as a rule the birds you get there are Bengal birds, on their way 

 to or from their breeding haunts in Central or Northern Asia, 

 I have watched them, year after year, and have seen them every 

 year at these seasons, steadily making their way up or down 

 country, along the courses of the Jumna and the Ganges. To 

 the best of my belief at no other time in the year do you meet 

 them, except as very rare stragglers on either of these rivers 

 above their confluence at Allahabad. At these precise seasons 

 a dozen or more will pass you every day, (I have seen fifty in 

 a single day) flying steadily up or down and following exactly 

 the course of the river. The Nujjufghur Jheel, especially in the 

 early autumn, is, in most years, a vast sheet of water approach- 

 ing very closely to the Jumna, and here when the birds are 

 on their way down, a large number of this species may be seen 

 for a short time gathered together. 



This species sits about upon the water a great deal. Both in the 

 inland lakes and the bays along the Mekran Coast, they were 

 much more commonly seen swimming about than sitting on the 

 shore or flying. 



The birds which we shot during the laiter half of January 

 had all of them white throats and some of them only slightly 

 blackish mottled caps, but some of those killed at Muscat in 

 the middle of February, were in the fullest breeding plumage, 

 the whole head and neck all round being velvet black. 



I notice that Dr. Jerdon is mistaken in describing the tail 

 of the adult as having a black band; it is pure white, and the 

 black band, when it occurs, is a sign of nonag-e. 



