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in the Bay of Macri in May 1875 ; and Canon Tristram met with it on the coasts of Palestine. 

 It is not uncommon in North-east Africa. Captain Shelley says (B. of Egypt, p. 306), it 

 " ranges throughout Egypt, and is probably a resident in the country. Mr. E. C. Taylor (Ibis, 

 1867, p. 72) mentions that his party procured a specimen out of a small flock they saw near 

 Keneh, in Upper Egypt. This is the most southern point on the Nile that I am aware of its 

 having been met with." Von Heuglin only met with it on the lagoons and sea-coast. It is to 

 be seen in large flocks at Rosetta, Damietta, and Suez, and on the canal north of the last-named 

 town, and on the flat shores near the small harbours of Arabia Petrsea; but he never saw it in 

 summer on the Bed Sea. In May and June, however, he observed large flocks on the Etku and 

 Menzaleh Lakes ; and he ascertained that it breeds in the lagoons of the Nile delta. Mr. C. W. 

 Wyatt states that it is common in the bay at Tor, in Sinai, and he shot one when returning 

 along the shore from Isbel Nagus. According to Loche it is not rare on the coast of Algeria, 

 and he procured specimens in the harbour of Algiers. It occurs in Tangier, though Favier only 

 records a single specimen as having been obtained by him there in 1852; but Lord Lilford 

 informs me that he found it not uncommon on the great lagoon of El Baheira, Tunis, in 

 November and December 1856 ; and there is a specimen in the Paris Museum from Senegal, 

 showing that it ranges at least as far south as that district on the west coast of Africa. 



In Asia the present species is found as far east as Sindh. It is common on the shores of the 

 Caspian ; and Mr. Blanford writes (Eastern Persia, ii. p. 292) : — it is " very common on the 

 Makran coast and in the Persian Gulf, Hume says more so than any other species at Karachi ; 

 but I think along the coast in November and December (six weeks earlier in the year than 

 Mr. Hume's visit, which may have made a considerable difference) both Larus argentatus and 

 Larus hemprichi were more numerous everywhere, except at Iashk, where I saw more of the 

 present species. At Gwadar I did not observe Larus gelastes at all." Speaking of its occurrence 

 in the Persian Gulf, Mr. Hume writes (Stray Feathers, i. p. 274) as follows: — "This lovely 

 species is numerically the most abundant of all that frequent the Kurrachee harbour, and all 

 the way up the Gulf of Oman in suitable localities I met with vast flocks of it. Towards 

 midday it gathers together at the point of some long sandy spit stretching far out into the 

 water, or else congregates on some tiny islet, and there suns itself, hundreds of them closely 

 packed within the space of a few square yards, close to the water's edge. Sometimes one or two 

 Sooty Gulls, conspicuous in their mourning weeds, may be detected amongst them, or a small 

 party of Thalasseus bengalensis or Thalasseus cantiacus ; but as a rule they are very exclusive, 

 and admit no other bird into their company. Some little distance apart one or two huge Black- 

 headed Gulls or a little group of Larus ridibundus will be seen ; but these do not mingle with the 

 Slender-bills at the time of their noonday siesta. 



" This species, which has hitherto only been recorded from the Mediterranean and the 

 Caspian Sea, appears to have its head quarters, at any rate during the winter, in the northern 

 parts of the Indian Ocean and the Gulfs of Oman and Persia ; no other sea-bird did I see 

 collected in such vast flocks as this species. 



"Just inside the Kurrachee harbour, under the lee of the Minora headland, a strip of sand 

 affords them a sunny resting-place ; and there daily in the cold weather, from about 11 till 2 or 3 



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