OCR Text |
Show 182 MR H. SAUNDERS ON THE LARIN^. [Feb. 5, Gabianus bathyrhynchus, Bruch, J. f. Orn. 1855, p. 280; Bp. Consp. Av. ii. p. 212 (1857). Gabianus georgii (King), Bp. Consp. Av. ii. p. 213 (1857). Hab. South-west portions of Australia, Bass's Straits, and Tasmania ; not included by Mr. Buller in his ' Birds of New Zealand,' hut there are three specimens labelled from that locality in the British Museum, obtained bv the Antarctic Expedition. Mr. Gould's plate hardly gives a correct idea of the dimensions and great depth of bill in this fine species, which may easily be distinguished by this feature in all stages. In the adult the tail is crossed by "a black band ; and this peculiarity in the plumage, coupled with the stout bill, seems to place this species midway between the typical Gulls and those of the next group. The value of Gabianus as a genus for this species has been already discussed. 20. LARUS BELCHERI, Vigors. Larus belcheri, Vigors, Zool. Journ. iv. p. 358 (1829); id. Zool. Beecher's Voy. "Blossom," p. 39; Schlegel, M . P.-Bas, Lari, p. 9 (1863), excl. syns.; Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1871, p. 575. Adelarus belcheri, Bruch, J. f. Orn. 1853, p. 107; id. 1855, p. 279 ; Bp. Naum. p. 212 (1854). Leucophceus belcheri, Bp. Consp. Av. ii. p. 232 (1857). " Larus fuliginosus, Gould," Cassin, U.S. Expl. Exp. Orn. p. 378 (1858), nee Gould (Cape Horn to Callao). Larus frobeenii, Phil. & Land. Wiegm. Archiv, 1861, p. 292. Larus frobeni, iid. Cat. Aves Chil. An. Univ. Chil. torn. xxxi. p. 288. Hab. West coast of S. America, from Callao southwards to Chili, the western portions of the Straits of Magellan, and down to Cape Horn. I have the fully adult bird with pure white head and underparts from Chorillos, near Callao, Peru ; but I observed the immature birds with dark hoods in far greater numbers. Although several of these Pacific Gulls have a hood in the immature stage, which is lost in the adult, in none of them is the change so remarkable as in this species. I confess that I cannot see any adequate reason for giving it generic rank ; but Bonaparte thought differently, for he made it the type of his genus Procellarus, being quite unaware that it was absolutely the same species as the bird which he had already located in the genera Leucophceus and Adelarus! Dr. Coues, in a general notice of American Gulls, under the head of X. heermanni (B. of N.W. p. 642), says that L. belcheri is "not a white-headed Gull at all," though he afterwards says that he should not be surprised if, in the adult state, it lost its hood. In this last surmise he is quite right; the adult L. belcheri is a perfectly white-headed Gull, at the first glance being like a stout L. fuscus with a black band on its tail. 21. LARUS HEERMANNI, Cassin. Larus heermanni, Cassin, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. vi. p. 187 |