DISTRIBUTION OF THE GULLS AND TEENS. 397 



affinities are more Avith this group than with any other. This is 

 L. scoreshii, Traill, a gull with a remarkably short, stout, crimson 

 bill, coarse feet, with somewhat excised webs, and a decided hood in 

 the immature stage, whilst in the adult plumage the head becomes 

 light coloured as in the rest of the group, from which, again, it 

 differs in having a white tail like an ordinary adult gull. Passing to 

 the extremity of the opposite side of the South Pacific, we find in 

 Tasmania, and j^erhaps in New Zealand, a very large black- 

 mantled gull with an enormously deep bill, L. pacificus, Lath., 

 which, whilst in some points resembling the typical gull, L. do- 

 minicanus, to be considered next, has also a black band across 

 the tail, which seems to indicate a relationship to the Pacific 

 group. As regards L. dominicanus, Licht., it is an ordinary black- 

 mantled, stout-billed gull, with an extensive range, reaching from 

 Is ew Zealand through Kerguelen and the intermediate islands to 

 South Africa, and thence to South America on both sides nearly up 

 to the tropic of Capricorn. So far as the southern hemisphere is 

 concerned it stands alone ; and perhaps its closest ally is the 

 species L. marinus of the northern hemisphere, although the 

 interval between their ranges is considerable. To avoid re- 

 currence to the latter species, it may be as well to indicate its 

 range here. The Grreat Black-backed Gull, L. marinus, the largest 

 of all the family, is found throughout the greater part of the 

 Palsearctic and Nearctic regions, more especially in the North 

 Atlantic. In its wing-pattern it differs from any other large gull, 

 and it is by no means closely allied to the Lesser Black-backed 

 GruU, L. fuscus, which is also confined to the northern hemi- 

 sphere, but has a less extended range, being only found along 

 the shores of Euroj^e, the Mediterranean, and the Ked Sea and 

 vicinity, not reaching to the Pacific seaboard of China, nor to 

 the American side of the Atlantic. The latter is a long- winged 

 elegant species, with yellow legs and a comparatively small foot, 

 and is apparently closer to L. affinis, Eeinh., than to any other. 



Eeturning to the southern hemisphere, we find there a small 

 and isolated group, all the members of which are very closely allied. 

 In New Zealand the representative is L. scojpulinus, Porst., a 

 small gull with grey mantle, head, tail, and underparts white, 

 and red bill and feet. In Australia, Tasmania, and New Caledonia 

 it is replaced by L. novce-hollandicB, Steph,, which merely differs 

 from it in its slightly larger dimensions and a trifling variation 

 in the pattern of the primaries. Then, without a link in the 



