418 LAEIDJ;. 



This is a South- American species, found throughout the greater part of that continent, 

 and ascending the large rivers for thousands of miles, even to the Huallaga and the 

 foot of the Eastern Andes ^- Mr. Saunders also states that it occurs on Lake Titicaca, 

 and is found along the Pacific coast, from the Straits of Magellan to Peru, and up the 

 Guayaquil B.iver as far as Babahoyo. 



A single specimen from Cozumel Island has been identified by Mr. Howard Saunders 

 as belonging to the present species. This locality is far beyond any range of ^. melanura 

 previously recorded. The following observations are copied from his volume of the 

 ' Catalogue of Birds '2; — "The specimen from Cozumel has distinctly smoke-coloured 

 under wing-coverts, and shows no trace of white on the parapteral feathers ; the 

 rectrices are chiefly dark, but the white on their edges is rather wider than in 

 typical M. melanura, and so is the whitish band on the wing. The fact that the 

 North American R. nigra visits Cozumel is not without significance." 



Subfam. LAEIN^. 



In this subfamily are to be found all the Gulls, large and small, the characteristic 

 feature of the group being the form of the upper mandible, which is the longer, and is 

 bent down over the tip of the lower mandible, thus distinguishing the Gulls from 

 the Terns, in which the bill is slender and both mandibles are of equal length. The 

 tail is usually square, in a few instances forked, and on still rarer occasions wedge- 

 shaped. 



The Larinse are practically cosmopolitan, being found at some period of the year in 

 every quarter of the globe. 



LARUS. 

 Lotus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 224 (1766) ; Saunders, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 169 (1896). 



In the Gulls of the typical genus Larus the taU. is not forked, but is square or very 

 nearly so ; the hind toe is moderately or well developed and free, and the lower third 

 of the tibia is bare. The bill is always more than twice as long as it is deep, and is 

 sometimes thrice as long, the nostrils being linear or linear-ovate. 



Forty-four species of Gulls are recognized by Mr. Howard Saunders, of which seven 

 occur in Central America. Two only, however, are known to breed there, the rest being 

 winter visitants from more northern regions. 



1. Larus Philadelphia. 



sterna Philadelphia, Ord, in Guthrie's Geogr. 2nd Amer. ed. ii. p. 319 '. 



Chroicocephalus Philadelphia, Duges, La Nat. i. p. 142"; Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 317'; 



Sanchez, La Nat. i. p. 108 *. 

 Lariis Philadelphia, Baird, Brewer, & Kidgway, Water-Birds N. Amer. ii. p. 260 ° ; A. O. U. Check-1. 



