174 MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE LARIN^E. [Feb. 5, 



Canaries (probably its south-west breeding-limit, although it is 

 known to go as far south as Senegal, whence I have examined spe- 

 cimens obtained in May). It visits the Portuguese and Spanish coasts, 

 goes up the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, ascends the Nile to 

 Nubia, and is found throughout the Nile country, whilst on the Red 

 Sea, as far as Aden, it is stated to be sedentary (Finsch $• Hartlaub). 

 Jerdon's solitary immature specimen procured at Jaulna, in the 

 Deccan, was probably L. affinis, the length of the wing (18 to 19 

 inches) being greater than that of any L. fuscus I ever saw, 1 7| 

 inches being the very extreme for an old and fresh-moulted bird; 

 and, indeed, Mr. Dresser gives only 15*7! Mr. Dresser states that 

 Dybowski found it in Dauria ; but Prof. Taczanowski, in his " Faune 

 de la Siberie Orientale " (Bull. Soc. Zool. de France, i.) does not 

 mention it amongst that traveller's collection ; and with regard to 

 the quotation by the above author of Mr. Swinhoe's authority for its 

 occurrence on the coast of China, a reference to the revised " List 

 of the Birds of China," P. Z. S. 1871, p. 421. no. 656, shows that 

 the species referred to ('Ibis,' 1860, p. 68) as L. fuscus was really 

 L. crassirostris, Vieill. (L. melanurus, Temm.), thus considerably 

 circumscribing the eastern range attributed to it. As regards America, 

 Dr. Coues considers that there is no good evidence of its occurrence 

 on the coasts of the United States. 



The distinguishing characteristics of the adult of this species are 

 its dark slate-coloured mantle, chrome-yellow legs and feet, and the 

 shortness of the foot as compared with the tarsus. The outer pri- 

 maries are very dark, and may be termed black, with a subapical 

 patch or mirror on the first ; and in old birds there is a small 

 mirror on the second primary ; but even in these there is no sign of 

 the grey wedge on the upper part of the inner web of the outermost, 

 scarcely so on the second, and but rarely even on the third — a 

 marked difference from the L. argentatus group. In L. fuscus the 

 inner web merely fades into a lighter shade towards the edge ; and 

 this dark ground of the primaries, and the absence of distinct 

 " pattern," coupled with its average smaller size, and especially the 

 smaller foot, will generally be sufficient to distinguish it from either 

 L. affinis or L. occidentalls. But for the large coarse foot, I should 

 have assigned a specimen of L. occidentalis, from Magdalena Bay, 

 California, to this species ; for at the time I had never seen so dark a 

 form of the American bird. In shade of mantle there is much 

 variation, some being in this respect quite as light as L. affinis, whilst 

 the blackest are Egyptian specimens, in which the yellow feet are 

 also brightest, probably due to climatic influences. These very dark 

 birds when old have certainly a white subapical spot on the second 

 primary, although Blasius imagined that this was confined to northern 

 and lighter-mantled birds. The examples which run closest to L. 

 affinis are some from Malaga and Tangiers, two of which I have with 

 the subapical spot on the second primary, showing considerable age ; 

 but even with these the difference between them and L. affinis is very 

 marked, L. affinis having the grey wedge so much more defined. 

 The adults, therefore, are quite distinguishable : but some years ago, 

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