414 THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 
passing boats, until almost run over. Hundreds may be seen 
crowded at midday on the fort rocks as tame and fearless, 
amidst the surrounding bustle, as the crows in the Bombay 
highways. 
Further out into the harbour, where vessels are scarce and the 
traffic insignificant, few of these are to be seen, but here during 
the day, Larus occidentalis* is comparatively abundant. It 
is only in the early mornings and towards sunset that this latter 
species gathers in, in any great numbers, where the shipping is 
massed. Curiously enough I did not notice one L. lewcopheus, 
though it is possible that some of the immature birds belong- 
ed to this species. 
As one gets out towards the Prongs lighthouse and Colaba 
Point, terns begin to appear ; Gelochelidon anglicus is by far 
the most common of these, but Sterna bengalensis, and Bergit, 
also occur, and we saw one Sylochelidon caspius conspicuous 
by its large size and red bill; a species rarely seen so far away 
from fresh or brackish water. On the rocks we saw a solitary 
specimen of Larus Hemprichiit, which I first added to the 
Indian Avifauna from Kurr achee, and of which Bombay must 
now be taken as the most easterly point to which it is known 
to extend. 
About the seaward face of Bombay Island, I noticed a few 
Oyster Catchers, and there were several in Back Bay ; all round 
the Island, and other Islands in the harbour, the Turnstone 
was pretty abundant. 
Every here and there, on rocky points, grey and white reef 
herons (DL). gularis) are seen, the white as usual much less 
numerous, 
About the shipping, kites were as numerous, as in the streets 
of Bombay. In the town I saw nothing but what I call govinda, 
a bird intermediate in size betwen affinis and major, but in the 
harbour I saw, and, after some trouble succeeded in shooting, 
a magnificent specimenft of the latter, and I think I saw one or 
two more at a distance. 
* A nearly adult male Larus occidentalis, but still shewing many traces of the 
immature ae measured :—Length, 24; expanse, 57:5; tail from vent. 7; wing, 
17; tarsus, 2°9; midtoe and claw, 2° 7; bill from gape, 3°1; weight, 2°5 lbs.; irides, 
pale yellowish brown; bill, pale livid purplish grey, with a ‘broad blackish brown bar 
towards the tip, and a yellow tinge at gonys; legs and feet, pale livid pinky white; 
claws, dark brown. 
+ This bird is not a bit like the “ melanotis” from China that I have seen. It was 
a female, length, 26°6; expanse, 65°(0; tail from vent, 145; wing, 21:0; tarsus, 
2:5; bill from gape, 2° 0; weight, 2°4 Ibs. 
The irides were pale brown ; the legs and feet, white, with a pale brown tinge: 
claws, black; cere on culmen, pale yellow, rest of cere, gape, and base of lower man- 
dible, pale blue ; ; rest of bill black, 
There is an enormous pure white patch on the under surface of the wing, much as 
in a Buzzard. 
