18/8.] MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE LARIN.-K. 101 



same as the author's Gavice ! Its only claim to remembrance is its 

 adoption by Mr. W. L. Buller as a genus for a New-Zealand species. 



Procellarus et Epitelarus, Bonap. Naumannia, 1854, pp. 211, 

 213. 



Genus defined. Type and sole representative, P. neglectus, which 

 is an immature L. scoresbii. This species the author had already 

 located in the genus Leucophceus. 



Clupeilarus, Bonap. Consp. Av. ii. p. 220 (1857). 



For L. fuscus, cachinnans, and verreauxii. This genus has not 

 even the merit of consistency ; for it contains such different species 

 as above, whilst it omits L. dominicanus (of which L. verreauxi is 

 only the African form) and L. murinus. 



Of the rejected genera one of the best is Gabianus, Bp., of which 

 the sole representative, L. pacificus, has a remarkably deep, strong 

 bill. But it differs in no other structural point from other typical 

 species of Larus, whilst even in the form of the bill it is at times 

 closely approached by old males of L. dominicanus ; so that I think its 

 adoption would be inexpedient. LeucophcEUS, Bp., has been confused 

 between the author and Bruch until it includes species which Bona- 

 parte himself has almost simultaneously located in two other genera ; 

 and I can see no structural difference sufficiently marked to make it 

 desirable to employ either it or Blasipus, which, according to Bona- 

 parte's latest view, includes two species differing considerably in the 

 form of the bill. Adelarus, Bp., appears to be the result of an attempt 

 to Latinize the compound word "Edelmowen," and should rank with 

 his Bruchigavia and kindred genera. 



The arrangement of the species of Larus is matter of considerable 

 difficulty. The plan adopted by Schlegel of dividing the Gulls into 

 La?'i marini, for unhooded species, and Lari cucullati, for those which 

 at one time or another bear a hood, will not stand the test of later 

 experience, — almost all of those which have a hood in their immature 

 stage being emphatically *SWz-gulls, as are also a few of those which 

 have a hood in the breeding-season ; whilst at least two of the un- 

 hooded species are partial to inland waters, and present, in conse- 

 quence, the slight modifications of form shown by many of the 

 hooded marsh-breeding Gulls. Under these circumstances any 

 ascending or descending arrangement must necessarily be artificial ; 

 but I have endeavoured to group the species in the most natural 

 manner which seemed to me to be practicable. 



It may be as well to observe that by an "adult" bird I mean one 

 which has lost the mottlings, barred tail, and other signs of imma- 

 turity ; but an "old" bird is often subject to important alterations 

 in the coloration or "pattern" of the webs of the primaries, although 

 the general plumage may undergo no material change. The distinc- 

 tion between the age (in years) of the individual and the age (in 

 months) of the primary and other feathers should also be held in 



[7] 



