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Show 176 MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE LARINEE. [Feb. 5, Philadelphia; we have also shot it on the southern coasts of 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. delawarensis, 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. californicus. 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 localities 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 assumption is that Richardson described them from dried skins ! There can be very little doubt that Richardson's birds were examples of L. argentatus ; 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. delawarensis. To judge from the examples I have examined, L. californicus, although certainly the connecting-link between the L. argentatus and the L. canus group, is perfectly distinct from either. In the pattern of the primaries it rather goes with L. argentatus, in the colour of the soft parts with L. delawarensis ; in the colour of the mautle it is much darker than either, though not so dark as L. occidentalis. 13. LARUS DELAWARENSIS, Ord. Larus delawarensis, Ord, Guthrie's Geogr., 2nd Am. ed., ii. p. 319 (1815) fide 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 (Bermudas). Larus canus, Bp. Specchio Comp. p. 69 (1827), nee auctt. 1 "Larus argentatoides, Brehm," Bp. Synopsis, p. 360 (1828), nee Brehm. Larus zonorhynchus, Richardson, F. Bor.-Am. ii. p. 421 (1831) ; Audubon, B. Am. viii. p. 35, pl. 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); Gundlach, 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, taf. ii. fig. 20, nee Audubon. |
