LARUS DOMINICANUS 141 



L. dominicanus, sometimes attends the slaughter-houses to pick 

 up bits of meat." 



" It arrives in the Falkland Islands," Abbott says, " about 

 July 25th, almost to a day, though occasional stragglers occur 

 all the year round. It breeds in the beginning of December in 

 separate communities on a point of the coast or adjacent islands. 

 The nests are placed very thickly together, and each contains 

 two, or sometimes three eggs." 



In Tierra del Fuego, this bird is entirely a scavenger where 

 sufficient means of subsistence obtain. 



LARUS DOMINIC A.NUS (Lichteustein) 



Blackbacked Gull, Latham, Synopsis Birds, iii, p. 372, 1785. 



La gataiota mayor, Aeara, Pdxaros, Paraguay y La Plata, iii, p. 338, 

 1805. 



LarUS dominicanUS, Liditenstein, Verzekh. Doubl. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 

 p. 82, 1823 ; Gould and Darwin, Voy. " Beagle," Birds, p. 142, 1841 ; 

 Gray and Mitchell, Genera Birds, iii, p. 654, pi. clxxx, 1846 ; Abbott, Ibis, 

 p. 165, 1861 ; Burnford, Ibis, p. 201, 1877, p. 405, 1878 ; Sclater and 

 Hudson, Argentine Orn., ii, p. 197, 1889 ; Oustalet, Miss. Sci. Cap Horn, 

 Ois., p. 173, 1891; Saunders, Gat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxv, p. 245, 1896. 



Habitat, — South America, from Brazil and Peru, to Cape Horn ; the Falk- 

 land Islands ; South Georgian Islands ; South Africa ; the Crozet Islands ; 

 Kerguelen Island ; New Zealand and islands to the southward. 



S, Useless Bay, 25th Jan., 1905. 



Iris — old gold ; eyelids — red ; bill — dark yellow ; lower mandible, lower 

 portion — red ; legs — greenish yellow. 



■ The Dominican Gull nearly resembles Larus marinus 

 (Linnaeus) of Great Britain, but is smaller : its total length 

 is about 23 inches, as against about 30 inches in L. marinus. 



It has an extensive range, including some of the remotest 

 islands in the southern hemisphere ; but — according to Mr. 

 Howard Saunders — it has not yet been recorded from Tristan da 

 Cunha, Prince Edward Island, or Marion Island. 



