292 GAVi^. 



mantle pale slate-grey, and the light pattern on the inner webs of 

 its primaries is very distinct and wedge-shaped. Its orbits are ver- 

 milion. 



Figures : Dresser, Birds of Europe, viii. pi. 602. fig. 2. 



Pallas's Herring-Gull appears to be a regular winter visitor to 

 Japan. There are several examples in the Pryer collection from 

 Yokohama, and many have been procured at Hakodadi (Whitely, 

 Ibis, 1867, p. 210). It is probably to this species that the immature 

 Gulls obtained by the Perry Expedition in Yedo JBay, and supposed 

 to be the young of Larus ichthyaetus, are to be referred (Cassin, 

 Exp. Am. Squad. China Seas and Japan, ii. p. 232). It is a winter 

 visitor to the Bonin Islands (Seebohm, Ibis, 1890, p. 105), and there 

 is an example in the Norwich Museum obtained by Mr. Ringer near 

 Nagasaki. 



This species has a very wide range, from TeiieriflFe (where I found 

 it very abundant in May), through the Mediterranean, the Black 

 Sea, the Caspian, the Aral Sea, and Lake Baikal, to the valley of the 

 Amoor, but it has not occurred in the British Islands, where its place 

 is taken by a very closely-allied species, Larus argentatus. 



289. LARUS LEUCOPTERUS. 

 (ICELAND GULL.) 



Larus leucoptei-us, Faber, Prodr. islandischen Om. p. 98 (1832). 



The Iceland Gull is a miniature Glaucous Gull, with very pale 

 mantle and white primaries (wing from carpal joint 17 to 16 inches). 



Figures : Dresser, Birds of Europe, viii. pi. 606 (orbits coloured 

 vermilion instead of flesh-colour) . 



The occurrence of the Iceland Gull in Japan is not very satisfac- 

 torily proved. It is said that Captain Blakiston obtained an example 

 (Saunders, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 166) . There is no such example 

 in the Swinhoe collection, but it is very probable that there may 

 have been one, as it is said to be the commonest Gull in the Bering 

 Sea (Nelson, Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, p. 53) . 



The Iceland Gull breeds in Arctic America, wandering ia winter 

 as far west as Japan and as far east as the British Islands. 



