274 



LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS — LONGIPENNES. 



The first known example of the young of this excessively rare species has very recently been 

 described by Mr. Saunders (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lend. 188i, pp. 523, 524, pi. 34), who gives the 

 following information respecting the specimens known to date : — 



" The third known example of this rarest of Gulls, the history of which may here be briefly 

 recapitulated. The Paris Museum possesses one, in somewhat immature plumage, said to have 

 been obtained by Dr. Neboux, of the French frigate ' Venus,' at Monterey, Cal., in the month of 

 November. The British Museum has an adult in full breeding-plumage obtained during the voy- 

 age of H.M. SS. ' Herald' and ' Pandora,' at Dalrymple Rock, Chatham Island, Galapagos Group, 



nearly on the equator, between the 

 11th and 16th of January. It is a 

 medium-sized Gull, with long wings 

 (IG inches), a dark slate-colored 

 hood, and a forked tail ; indeed were 

 it not that tlie hood is separated from 

 the base of the bill by a band of 

 white feathers, and that there is no 

 black neck-ring at the base of the 

 hood, Xema furcatum might be de- 

 scribed as a gigantic Sabine's Gull. 

 In the young, now figured, the re- 

 semblance to the young of Xema 

 Sabinii is very marked. The entire 

 head is white, with dark markings 

 in front of and surrounding the eyes, 

 and a brown auricular patch as in 

 most of the immature hooded Gulls ; 

 neck and mantle ashy brown, the tips 

 of the feather? margined with white ; upper wing-coverts and secondaries white ; primaries 1-5 

 black, with greater part of inner web white, 6 and 7 white barred with dusky, 8-10 pure white. 

 Tail much forked, the outer feathers nearly white, the others banded with brown and tipped with 

 white ; rump white, slightly mottled with brown. Under parts white. Bill horn-black ; tarsi and 

 feet livid brown. The bill is proportionately longer, slenderer, and more curved than in X. Sabinii, 

 from which it also diflers in having a considerable bare space between the base of 1;he feathers and 

 the nares. The first primary which shows the slightest tip of white is the 5th, and there is. less 

 white at the tips of the upper ones than in the young of X. Sabinii. 



" The feathers are all quite fresh ; and, reasoning from analogy, I should think that this example 

 cannot have been more than three or four months old. Where, then, are the headquarters of this 

 mysterious Gull 1 It would seem by this specimen that its breeding-time corresponds to that of 

 the northern hemisphere, and that, like some other Gulls, it passes southward to escape the north- 

 ern winter ; but as yet nothing is known. It is, however, somewhat remarkable that American 

 naturalists who have devoted so much attention to the exploration of the coast of the Pacific, from 

 Vancouver Island down to Mexico, have discovered no trace of it ; nor have repeated visits to the 

 Galapagos produced more than the isolated adult specimen above noticed. Captain Marlcham's 

 valuable acquisition has now made us acquainted with the first plumage of this extremel}^ rare 

 bird ; and the proof of the existence of this long-lost species may be expected to awaken an interest 

 which will probably in a few years lead to the discovery of its real habitat." 



The Fork-tailed Gull was originally described from a specimen said to have been 

 taken at sea off the coast of California. There has been no subsequent confirmation 

 of the claim of tliis species to a place in the fauna of North America. Ur. Cooper 

 writes me that he has never seen any individual answering to the description of this 

 species along the Pacific coast of California, nor has it been obtained there by any 

 one else. Nothing is known as to its distribution or its general habits. It is now 

 positively ascertained that of the three specimens — all that have ever been procured 



