HEUGLIN'8 HEBBING GULL. 59 



Specific Characters. — Similar to L. leucophcEus, but larger; mantle smoky 

 slate ash-colour; secondaries and tertiaries white at the apex; beak slender; 

 angle of the gonys less conspicuous, but much more obtuse ; jaw pale 

 ochreous; before the apex the culmen orange red. The lower jaw pale olive 

 yellow; a black spot just before the apex below, surrounded by fiery 

 yellowish red; the angle of the mouth deep orange; orbit naked, of a 

 coralline red; iris testaceous, punctured with black spots; feet pale 

 ochreous; the webs slightly obscured. An adult male specimen from the 

 Somali Coast 22"; beak from forehead 2"; wing 16" 5'" to 16" 8'"; tarsus 

 2" 4^'"; middle toe, with nail, 2" 3'"; tail 6". 



Heuglin, from whom the above is taken, gives the measurements 

 of a young bird from the Somali coast, which is of the same length, 

 but rather less in details. He also gives measurements of three 

 adults from the Gulf of Adalis, from Bucharest, and the Caspian 

 Sea, which are rather smaller, and of two young ones from the Sarpa 

 Steppes, which are smaller than the one from the Somali coast. 



He then goes on to remark: — "The wings project beyond the point 

 of the tail 2" to 3'". A close comparison of this Gull, with the 

 forms most nearly allied, has led me to the firm conviction that we 

 have to deal with quite a good and distinct species; it struck me 

 as such at first sight, having been able to observe our bird alive. 

 The description of Pallas may, indeed, refer to the same partly, yet 

 it is not sufficiently defined. He had, probably, two species, L. 

 cacchinans and L. argentatus, before him, which in error he considered 

 as one. In its colouring on the back Larus caccJimans stands exactly 

 intermediate between L. fuscus and L. argentatus. It is somewhat 

 larger than the southern form of the latter (Z-. leucopheus, Licht.) 

 It has a larger beak, the point of which is less bent down. The 

 mark before the tip of the lower part of the beak is much more 

 blunt in many specimens, even nearly flat, and rather ridge-formed. 

 The nostrils are much further back from the point of the beak 

 (somewhat over 12'") than L. argentatus from north-east Africa, which is 

 10'" at the highest, and placed quite level. The beak is over the lower 

 corner (at the opening) 8'" to 8|"' high, and quite different in colour. 

 The upper mandible is a clear ochreous yellow, somewhat more lively 

 at the opening, while the top, and especially its foremost third part, 

 excluding the tip, is orange yellow. The lower mandible is of a 

 very pale soft greenish yellow, with the tip the same. Opposite the 

 angle of the beak below there is a small, perfectly round, black 

 spot, which is broadly sprinkled with deep fiery red, the latter 

 colour gradually becoming paler outwards on all sides. The colour 



