LARUS BRUNNEICEPHALUS. 1051 



common, frequenting the flats beyond the Manaar channel and the coast thence on to Jaffna in numbers. 

 In March 1876 I saw many birds with dark hoods in the latter neighbourhood; and these doubtless were on 

 the point of leaving for their breeding-grounds. 



It is a very abundant bird on the coasts of India, and in the northern parts ascends the large rivers, such 

 as the Ganges, Brahmapootra, Indus, &c., far into the interior, likewise affecting fresh- and salt-water lakes 

 widely removed from the sea. At the Sambhur Lake, " the water of which," writes Mr. Hume, "is often 

 nearly saturated brine, and where it is difficult to guess what they find to eat, Brown-headed Gulls are seen 

 throughout the cold season in vast numbers." On the Sindh coast it is not common, though it is found more 

 or less plentifully throughout most of the surrounding north- western region at one locality, in which (the 

 Kunkrowlee Lake in Rajpoot ana) Mr. Hume observed it in numbers in the cold season. It does not appear 

 to extend westwards up the Gulf of Oman, being there replaced by the Sooty Gull ; but in the breeding- 

 season moves to the north-east, through Kashmir towards Thibet, for Dr. Henderson found it abundantly 

 in July near the Pangong Lake, where it was breeding near a stream in the Chagra valley ; north of this 

 region still, Dr. Scully observed it in November and December at Kashgar, and again in January near Sughlak, 

 which proves that it does not altogether forsake its breeding-haunts in the winter. Turning eastward, to 

 complete my notice of its range in India, it is stated to be common on the Hooghly, in Furreedpore, and 

 throughout the region at the head of the Bay of Bengal, swarming at the mouth of the Rangoon river 

 {Armstrong), not uncommon in the winter on the Sittang (Oates), and also along the coast of Tenasserim, and 

 inland up the creeks as far south as Tonka (Hume). From this region it migrates northwards into Mongolia, 

 where Prjevalsky met with it on Lake Dalai-nor during its migration north from the middle of March to the 

 middle of April; on other lakes it was scarce. He states that they breed plentifully on the lakes of the 

 Hoang-ho valley, and that the earliest migrants appeared at Koko-nor on the 5th of March. Pere David 

 likewise met with it frequently in Mongolia and also in China. It has been obtained in Persia ; but Swinhoe 



and passing into dark sepia-brown on the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts ; neck-feathers with fine light-brown 

 shaft-streaks ; the scapulars with brownish-grey central spots at the tips ; the edges of the wing-coverts slightly 

 paler than the centre of the feathers ; primaries black towards the tips, and white thence to the base ; the outer 

 web of the 1st quill wholly black ; secondaries white at the base ; tail black-brown, primary and tail-feather shafts 

 white ; tail beneath pale at the base. 



Young : nestling. " Dark brown, mottled with white." (Hutton.) 



Immature bird. (Campbell Island.) Wing 16-5 inches ; tail 6 - o ; tarsus 3 - : middle toe (without claw) 2-5 ; bill to 



gape (straight) 2 - 5, height at base 088. 

 (Ceylon.) Pale brown throughout, the neck-feathers with light shafts and greyish tips ; the under-surface feathers 



tipped with greyish ; wing-coverts with the central portions near the tip fulvous, becoming paler at the extremities 



of the feathers. 



Obs. Mr. H. Saunders finds that the largest birds are from the Southern Ocean , between the Cape of Good Hope and 

 New Zealand, and that those from the South Atlantic have a tendency to a pale frill of acuminate feathers. 



A likely bird, perhaps, to occur in Ceylon is the Skua inhabiting the Mekran coast, and which Mr. Hume has named 

 S. asiaticus (Stray Feath. 1873, p. 269), considering it to be different from Richardson's Skua. The specimen 

 which constitutes the type measures : — Length 19-0 inches ; wing 13-0 ; tail 6-4, central feathers 0-75 longer than 

 the adjacent pair ; bill at front (including cere) 1*2, from gape 2-02. Iris brown ; legs and feet dull black ; bill 

 brown ; cere pale greenish brown ; chin, throat, and breast white, the flanks barred with brown. 



Distribution.— A fine immature example of this Skua was brought to me at Colombo, in October 1875, by a native, 

 who stated that it had been caught by another man near Maravilla, on the Negombo and Chilaw canal. The bird's wing 

 was cut ; it was very tame, and it had the appearance of having been accustomed to the society of man, although the 

 native asserted that it had been caught only a few weeks. I am unwilling, in the face of this not wholly reliable evidence, 



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