314 



LARID^. 



and the whole of the chin and throat, as far as the eyes on either side, 

 breast, abdoraen, vent and shorter central lower tail-coverts, pure 

 white. A white line about O'OG wide encircles the eye and extends 

 backwards from the posterior angle as a nai'row white streak for a 

 distance of "36 to 0"4 inch; below this the ear-coverts are dusky 

 brown, slightly mingled with whitish; the white line below the eye is 

 only separated from the white of the throat by a hair line of greyish 

 brown. The sides of the neck and the breast, where the brown of the 

 upper meets the white of the lower parts, are somewhat paler brown, 

 slightly intermingled with white. The sides, axillaries, flanks, and the 

 lesser under wing-coverts next the body, and the whole of the exterior 

 and longer tail-coverts are deep brown ; the rest of the lower wing- 

 coverts, except just at the edge of the wing, are white, here and there 

 slightly mottled, especially at the edge of the wing with dusky brown; 

 the longer axillaries are mottled with white along their bases. 



Bill dusky brown, bluish at base and basal three-fourths of lower 

 mandible ; irides brown ; legs and feet white, tinged with pink and 

 lavender, with claws, margin of web, exterior of foot, and outer toe, 

 and part of ridge of mid-toe black. 



Length. — 13 inches, wing 7, tarsus I'S, bill from forehead to tip 

 1"3, from anterior margin of nostril 1'06 inch. — {Huvie, Str. F. 

 i. p. 5.) 



Uab. — Sind Coast and the mouths of the Indus, also on the 

 Mekran Coast. Like the Petrel, the Puffin or Shear-water also lives 

 entirely on the sea, except during the breeding season, when holes in 

 rocks are their haunts ; like the Petrels, feeds on floating garbage, 

 fish, Crustacea, &c. 



Family, LARIDJi;, Yig. Lestridse, Kaup. 



Bill straight, compressed ; wings long and pointed ; tail long ; tarsi 

 with transverse scutes in front; hind toe usually short. 



Sub-Family, STERCORARIIN^.— G. R. Gray. 



Base of bill covered with a cere, tip hooked ; 1st quill longest ; nos- 

 trils median. 



Stercorarius, Briss. — Keel of bill covered with a bony or mem- 

 branous cere ; 1st quill longest. 



Stercorarius asiaticus, Hume, Sir. F. i. 268; v. 294. Lestris 

 parasiticus, Lin.; Gould. B. Fur. pi. 441 ; Aud. Birds Amar. vii. pi. 

 452 ; Murray, Hdhk., Zool, 4c., Sind, p. 244.— The Skua. 



This is not uncommon off the Manora headland, and along the Sind 

 and Mekran Coasts. There is some difference of opinion in regard to 

 the identity of this bird, under the synonyms given of it above. Mr. 

 Hume, in vol. i. p. 268, refers it to L. parasitiais, but in his observations 

 on the species states it may not improbably hereafter turn out that both 

 his specimens and those of Major Tickell's belong to a distinct species 

 intermediate between jiomarinus and parasiticus, in which case he says 



