176 MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE LARINjE. [Feb. 5, 



Philadelphia ; we have also shot it on the southern coasts of Eng- 

 land." Now I am not aware of this species having been found within 

 2000 miles of New York ; and the description and measurement (20 

 inches in length) suit L. delaivarensis, the length of which Dr. Coues 

 gives as 19*75 inches, better than any other. Dr. Coues goes on 

 to identify L. argentatoides of Richardson with Bonaparte's species : 

 but this cannot be ; for Richardson's birds were from 23 to 25 inches 

 in length, with a mantle of the same shade as the Iceland Gull — both 

 too large and too light for L. calif ornicus . Richardson got his bird at 

 Melville Peninsula, and speaks of it as found at Hudson's Bay. Dr. 

 Coues says the Smithsonian Institution possesses specimens " from lo- 

 calities not far distant from those of Richardson ;" but it seems to me 

 that Great Slave Lake is a very considerable distance from Melville 

 Peninsula, although nearer to it than to New York. Dr. Coues gives 

 the length of L. californicus as 20 inches ; and as Richardson's 23 

 to 25 inches do not suit him, he quite gratuitously suggests that 

 Richardson drew up his measurements from the largest specimens ; 

 whilst as for the colour of the legs, which are described as " flesh- 

 coloured," whereas in L. californicus they are olivaceous, his assump- 

 tion is that Richardson described them from dried skins ! There can 

 be very little doubt that Richardson's birds were examples of L. ar- 

 gentatus; for his measurements and descriptions suit that species 

 better than any other. 



I am glad to see that Dr. Coues, in his 'Birds of North-West 

 America,' has reconsidered his previous hasty determination that this 

 species was merely a large variety of L. delavmrensis. To judge 

 from the examples I have examined, L. californicus, although cer- 

 tainly the connecting-link between the L. argentatus and the L. canus 

 group, is perfectly distinct from either. In the pattern of tbe 

 primaries it rather goes with L. argentatus, in the colour of the soft 

 parts with L. delaivarensis ; in the colour of the mantle it is much 

 darker than either, though not so dark as L. occidentalis. 



13. Larus delawarensis, Ord. 



Larus delaivarensis, Ord, Guthrie's Geogr., 2nd Am. ed., ii. p. 3 1 9 

 (1815)/</<? Lawr. B. N. Am. p. 846 (1858); Coues, B. of North- 

 West Am. p. 636 (1874); Wheeler, Rep. Exp. and Surv. W. of 

 100th Mer. p. 485 (1876); Reid, Zoologist, 1877, p. 489 (Ber- 

 mudas) . 



Larus canus, Bp. Specchio Comp. p. 69 (1827), nee auctt. 



? "Larus argentatoides, Brthm," Bp. Synopsis, p. 360 (1828), 

 nee Brehm. 



Larus zonorhynchus, Richardson, F. Bor.-Am. ii. p. 421 (1831) ; 

 Audubon, B. Am. \iii. p. 35, pi. 446 (1839) ; Schlegel, Mus. P.- 

 Bas, Lari, vi. p. 22 (1863); Blasius, J. f. Orn. 1865, p. 380; Bp. 

 Consp. Av. ii. p. 224 (1857); Guudlach, J. f. Orn. 1857, p. 236 

 (Cuba). 



Glaucus zonorhynchus (Rich.), Bruch, J. f. Orn. 1853, p. 102. 



"Glaucus occidentalis (Audub.)," Bruch, J. f. Orn. 1853, p. 101 s 

 taf. ii. fig. 20, nee Audubon. 

 [22] 



