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Show 1882.J FROM PERU AND CHILI. 527 L A R U S D O M I N I C A N U S , Licht. Larus dominicanus, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p. 82 (1823); Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1871, p. 576 ; Saund. op. cit. 1878, p. 180. Five specimens in various stages of plumage from Coquimbo and Callao. This widely distributed black-backed Gull appears to replace in the southern hemisphere the northern L. marinus. STERCORARIUS POMATORHINUS (Temm.), Saund. P. Z. S. 1876, p. 324. 6* $, Callao Bay, December 1881. Two examples of this circumpolar parasitic Gull, apparently in second and third year. These are the first specimens on record from the South Pacific, its previous occurrence in that ocean reaching no further than the latitude of Inosima, Japan (P. Z. S. 1877, p. 800). Callao is also by about three degrees the most southern latitude yet reached, Cape York, North Australia, being the nearest. It is probably a regular visitant to the Peruvian coast, several observers having remarked medium-sized Skuas pursuing the other Gulls, although, until now, the species could not be identified. Unless specimens are actually obtained, it is, however, unsafe to conclude that any species observed pursuing and robbing other sea-birds must necessarily be a Skua of some kind : on the contrary, many other Gulls have similar habits, amongst which may be mentioned Larus belcheri and Larus heermanni in the Pacific, Larus atricilla (see E. Coues, B. N. W . p. 653), Larus hemprichi in the Red Sea, and, in all probability, many more. STERCORARIUS CHILENSIS (Bonap.), Saund. P. Z. S. 1876, p. 323. One, Callao Bay. This locality is the most northern yet recorded for this southern representative and close ally of <S. catarrhactes of the northern hemisphere. In a paper recently published by M . Alph. Milne-Edwards (Ann. Sc. Nat. (6) xii. art. 7), " Sur la Faune des regions australes," he inclines to the belief that the type from which the large short-tailed Skuas Stercorarius catarrhactes, S. chilensis, and S. antarcticus are derived belonged originally to the antarctic regions. The first is now confined to tbe northern hemisphere, in which alone all the other known species of Skua have their breeding-places, and the balance of probability would therefore seem to be rather in favour of a northern origin; but, after all, this is mere conjecture. With regard to the other Gulls I will quote his exact words : - " Cette etude montre que les Goelands et les Mouettes de la region antarctique ne presentent rien que puisse caracteriser la faune de cette partie du globe, et que les especes ou races qui y vivent sont probablement des de-rive's des oiseaux du meme genre qui abondent dans l'he'misphere nord." It would be unsatisfactory to enter into arguments as to the probability of the short-tailed Skuas having had their origin in the southern, whilst all the other Gulls had their origin in the northern |