THE YELLOW-LEGGED HERRING-GULL. 753 



Purpura, Helix, Littorina, etc.), Crustacea (crabs, Portunus and other 

 species, Crangon, Balanus, etc.), echinodermata (Asterius, Ophio- 

 thrix, and Echinus), annelida (earthworms and also marine worms), 

 insects, including diptera (Muscidoe, and Tipulidm and their larvse), 

 orthoptera (Forficula), coleoptera and larvae, and neuroptera. Also 

 vegetable matter, turnips, potatoes, grass, moss and grain as well 

 as seeds of various plants (Spergula, Ranunculus, Polygonum, 

 Stellaria, etc.), and berries of Empetrum and Rosa. 



Distribution . — British Isles. — Resident. Breeds all precipitous 

 coasts and stacks, as well as in some localities on low ground such 

 as low islands and bogs. In winter generally distributed on coasts 

 and often inland. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Breeds in northern Europe : Scandi- 

 navia and apparently north Russia on lake of Ladoga (though 

 Buturlin says (teste Dresser) that on White Sea and Gulf of Finland 

 L. a. cachinnans nests), coasts of Baltic and North Sea, south to 

 north-west France, also Greenland and northern N. America. (Not 

 Iceland.) In winter south to Mediterranean (rare), in America to 

 Cuba and Mexico. Replaced during breeding-season, on north 

 Spanish and Portuguese coasts, in Mediterranean, Atlantic islands, 

 and coasts of north-west Africa, as well as from White Sea, Black 

 and Caspian Seas, eastwards to Lake Baikal, and along arctic coast 

 of Siberia by allied forms. Another insufficiently known form 

 L. a. thayeri, said to breed Ellesmere Land, Buchanan Bay, to Banks 

 Island. 



453. Larus argentatus cachinnans Pall.*-— THE YELLOW- 

 LEGGED HERRING-GULL. 



Larus cachinnans Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat., n, p. 318 (1827 — Caspian 



Sea, Volga to Lake Baikal). 



Larus cachinnans Pallas, Saunders, pp. 673, 674. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter. — Like L. a. argen- 

 tatus but crown and sides of head very seldom with any streaks at 

 all, hind-neck not so heavily streaked, throat and upper-breast 

 without streaks (there is considerable individual variation and 

 most streaked L. a. cachinnans are like least streaked L. a. argentatus 



* The only British specimen has been examined by Dr. J. J. Dwight 

 and myself (by the courtesy of its owner Mr. W. Pv. Lysaght) and found not 

 to belong to the Azores-Canaries form atlantis which Dr. Dwight has recently 

 described as distinct. Hartert considers the Mediterranean bird (michahellesii) 

 distinguishable from more eastern birds (cachinnans) on account of the paler 

 and usually white or whitish patches on the inner webs of the outer primaries 

 of the latter. This is, however, a somewhat variable character, and while 

 the webs of the outer primaries in the British specimen (which is an adult) 

 are not whitish they are pale ash-grey and, moreover, are not fully grown, 

 the bird being in moult. The name cachinnans is, therefore, 'retained for the 

 single British example which might have reached Norfolk from north Russia 

 or Sweden with perhaps more probability than from the Mediterranean. — 



VOL. II. 3 c 



