72 SLENDEB-BILLED GULL. 



PALMIPEDES. 



Family LARID2E. (Boncqxirte.) 



Genus Larus. {LiniKBUS^ 



SLENDER-BILLED GULL. 



Larus gelastes. 



Larus gelastes, Lichtenstein. 



" tenuirostris, Temminck. Bree; ist. edition. 



" ge7iei, De Breme; Revue Zoologie, 1839. 



" brehmi, Heuglin. 



Xema lambruschinii,. Bonaparte. 



Mouette a bee grele, Of the French. 



Diinnschndblige Move, Of the Germans. 



Specific Characters. — Beak long and slender; wing coverts lead colour; 

 the first three primaries with their inner webs white, bordered with dark 

 brown, the first narrowly, the others deeper, the fourth entirely dusky. 

 Length of tarsus one inch and three quarters; length sixteen inches; 

 carpus to tip eleven inches and a half; beak two inches and a fifth; 

 middle toe one inch and one tenth. 



This Gull is, according to Temminck, likely to be found much 

 more frequently on the Mediterranean shores than the few recorded 

 instances of its capture on European ground would lead us to infer; 

 being, according to the opinion of that naturalist, frequently con- 

 founded with its congeners. 



Two instances are related of its having been seen by M. Cantraine 

 in Sicily, and the following is copied from the "Faune Meridionale" 

 of M. Crespon: — "When the ornithology of the Gard appeared, I 

 first made known that this new species was found in France. 

 Temminck had only previously received two skins from Italy. But 

 in the spring of 1842 I had brought to me five of the same bird, 

 which had been captured on the borders of the sea. I saw at a 

 glance that two of the females had already begun to sit, and I no 

 longer doubted that it nested in France. Having informed myself 



