416 



6 



the sexes; but the females had decidedly the smaller bills. On our return to Missolonghi a 

 fisherman brought us a young bird of this species, which we judged to be about five weeks old. 



"The colour of the legs of the young in the nest, and of the three-weeks-old bird, was 

 dark ash-grey. The five-weeks-old bird had paler-coloured legs ; and in all the adult birds the 

 colour of the legs was straw-yellow. In all cases the nails at the ends of the toes were dark 

 grey, approaching black. In the young the pupil of the eye was blue, and the iris coffee-brown ; 

 the older young birds had the pupil darker ; in the adult birds the pupil was still darker, say 

 blue-black, and the iris very pale straw-colour, almost light grey. In all the young birds the 

 corners of the mouth were flesh-coloured ; and in the adult, orange. The rim round the eye was 

 flesh-coloured in the young, and dark orange, almost vermilion, in the adult. The bills of the 

 young were darker and bluer than their legs ; they might be described as lead-coloured, becoming 

 pale horn-colour at the tip. In the adult the bill was straw-yellow, with a dark orange (almost 

 vermilion) spot at the angle of the lower mandible, in some cases extending slightly on to the 

 edge of the upper mandible. Larus leucophams is very nearly allied to our argentatus, but, 

 besides the difference in the colour of the legs, in the adult summer plumage straw-yellow 

 against flesh-coloured, I am convinced, from the examination of a series of skins of each laid 

 side by side, that L. leucophceus has longer secondary quill-feathers than L. argentatus when 

 measured from the tips of the scapulars." 



I have eggs of the present species from the Southern Ural, collected by Mr. Sabanaeff, and 

 have had for examination those taken by Mr. Seebohm above referred to, and cannot find any 

 distinctive difference between them and those of L. argentatus ; and they vary greatly inter se. 



The specimen figured on the foreground of the Plate (L. argentatus being on the left in the 

 background) is in the collection of Mr. E. Cavendish Taylor, and was obtained by him at Algiers, 

 this being also the specimen described. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E. Mus. E. Cavendish Taylor. 

 a. Algiers, February 20th, 1873 {E. C. T.). 



* 



. E Mus. Ind. Calc. 



a, b, (5. Gwadar, Baluchistan, December 1871. c, 2- Gwadar, January 14th, 1872. d, e, 6 juv.,f,g, h, i, 

 2juv. Gwadar, December 1871, and January 1872. k, 3 , I, ?. Mekran coast, Baluchistan, November 

 1871 {W. T. Blanford). m, <$, Bushire, January 1871 {Major St. John). 



E Mus. Howard Saunders, 

 a. Capri, January 1872. b. Genoa, c. Valencia, Spain (H. S.). d. Volga (Moschler). 



E Mus. H. Seebohm. 



a, b, c ; j ad., d, e, 2 ad.,f,g,juv., h, i,j, k, I, pulli. Echinades, near Missolonghi, Greece, June 2nd, 1873 

 (//. 8.). 



