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Show 172 MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE LARINEE. [Feb. 5, the Red Sea and the Beloochistan coast, which had formerly been a great trouble, most of them being in immature plumage, and not suiting either L. cachinnans or L. fuscus. Mr. Hume's description of the pattern of the primaries of the birds found in winter about Kurrachee (Stray Feathers, 1873, p. 273) shows clearly that his L. occidentalis is this species, and by no means the true American bird, the occurrence of which, as I have said before, has never yet been authenticated on the coasts of Asia. Heuglin's dark-mantled bird from Novaya Zemlia is clearly L. affinis ; and Middendorff's description of a variety of L. argentatus found round the southern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk also applies to this species. It may appear strange at first sight that this species should have been first described from Greenland; but that is merely due to the unusually careful attention which the fauna of that country has received from Dr. Reinhardt, whose watchful eyes not even a straggler could escape. I have examined the type, and am satisfied that it is of this species. It connects with L. fuscus rather closely (although quite distinct) in the length of its foot as compared with that of the tarsus, it having a proportionally smaller foot than either L. aryen-tatus, L. cachinnans, or L. occidentalis, but larger than L. fuscus. From the last it may also be distinguished by its larger size and the distinct "pattern" of the outer primaries, the grey wedge being quite marked in this species, whilst it is absent in the outer feather of L. fuscus. The mirror on the second primary is moreover only to be found in very old birds (not one of thirteen breeding-birds obtained on the Petchora had it) ; whilst in old L. fuscus this mirror is always present. The present species is in fact a Herring- Gull which passes the whole of the year in a brilliant atmosphere; and I cannot help thinking that to this, and to other conditions of existence with which we are as yet unacquainted, its intensity of coloration is mainly attributable. 10. LARUS OCCIDENTALIS, Audubon. Larus occidentalis, Aud. Orn. Biogr. v. p. 320 (1839); Lawr. B. of N. A m . p. 845 (1858) ; Elliot, B. N. Am. ii. pl. Iii.; Coues, P. Ac. N. S. Philad. 1862, p. 296; Schl. M . P.-Bas, Lari, p. 15 (1863). Glaucus occidentalis, Bruch, J. f. Orn. 1853, p. 101. Laroides occidentalis, id. op. cit. 1855, p. 282 ; Bp. Consp. Av. ii. p. 219 (1857). Larus argentatus, var. occidentalis, Coues, Key N. Am. Birds, p. 312 (1872); id. B. of N.W. Am. p. 633 (1874). Larusfuscusl, Saund. P.Z.S. 1875, p. 158 (Lower California). Hab. Pacific coast of North America down to Magdalena Bay, Lower California. It seems to me that this is a very recognizable form, and fully deserving of consideration as a species. Its nearest ally is, on the whole, L. affinis; but in the wing-pattern the grey wedge is absent in |
