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See also:GULL (Welsh gwylan, See also:Breton, goelann, whence Fr. goeland) , the name commonly adopted, to the almost entire exclusion of the O. Eng. See also:MEw (Icel. nzafur, See also:Dan. maage, See also:Swedish mase, Ger. Meve, Dutch meeuw, Fr. mouette), for a See also:group of See also:sea-birds widely and commonly known, all belonging to the genus Larus of See also:Linnaeus, which subsequent systematists have broken up in a very arbitrary and often absurd See also:fashion. The See also:family Laridae is composed of two See also:chief See also:groups, Larinae and Sterninae—the gulls and the terns, though two other subfamilies are frequently counted, the skuas (Stercorariinae), and that formed by the single genus Rhynchops, the skimmers; but there seems no strong See also:reason why the former should not be referred to the Larinae and the latter to the Sterninae. Taking the gulls in their restricted sense, See also:Howard Saunders, who has subjected the group to a rigorous revision (Prot. Zool. Society, 1878, pp. 155-211), admits See also:forty-nine See also:species of them, which he places in five genera instead of the many which some See also:prior investigators had sought to establish. Of the genera recognized by him, Pagophila and Rhodostethia have but one species each, Rissa and See also:Xenia two, while the See also:rest belong to Larus. The Pagophila is the so-called See also:ivory-gull, P. eburnea, names which hardly do See also:justice to the extreme whiteness of its plumage, to which its See also:jet-See also:black legs offer a strong contrast. The See also:young, however, are spotted with black. An inhabitant of the most See also:northern seas, examples, most commonly young birds of the See also:year, find their way in See also:winter to more temperate shores. Its breeding-See also:place has seldom been discovered, and the first of its eggs ever seen by ornithologists was brought See also:home by See also:Sir L. M`Clintock in 1853 from Cape Krabbe (Journ. R. Dubl. Society, i. 6o, pl. 1) ; others were subsequently obtained by Dr Malmgren in See also:Spitsbergen. Of the species of Rissa, one is the abundant and well-known kittiwake, R. tridactyla, of circumpolar range, breeding, however, also in comparatively See also:low latitudes, as on the coasts of See also:Britain, and in winter frequenting See also:southern See also:waters. The other is R. brevirostris, limited to the See also:North Pacific, between See also:Alaska and See also:Kamchatka. The singular fact requires to be noticed that in both these species the See also:hind toe is generally deficient, but that examples of each are occasionally found in which this functionless member has not wholly disappeared. We have then the genus Larus, which ornithologists have attempted most unsuccessfully to subdivide. It contains the largest as well as the smallest of gulls. In some species the adults assume a dark-coloured See also:head every breeding-See also:season, in others any trace of dark See also:colour is the See also:mark of immaturity. The larger species See also:prey fiercely on other kinds of birds, while the smaller content themselves with a See also:diet of small animals, often See also:insects and See also:worms. But however diverse be the See also:appearance, structure or habits of the extremities of the See also:series of species, they are so closely connected by intermediate forms that it is hard to find a See also:gap between them that would justify a generic See also:division. Forty-three species of this genus are recognized by Saunders. About fifteen belong to See also:Europe and fourteen to North See also:America, of which (excluding stragglers) some five only are See also:common to both countries. Our knowledge of the See also:geographical See also:distribution of several of them is still incomplete. Some have a very wide range, others very much the See also:reverse, as See also:witness L. fuliginosus, believed to be confined to the Galapagos, and L. scopulinus and L. bulleri to New See also:Zealand,—the last indeed perhaps only to the See also:South See also:Island. The largest species of the group are the See also:glaucous gull and greater black-backed gull, L. See also:glaucus and L. See also:marinus, of which the former is circumpolar, and the latter nearly so—not being hitherto found between Labrador and See also:Japan. The smallest species is the See also:European L. minutus, though the North See also:American L. See also:Philadelphia does not much exceed it in See also:size. Many of the gulls congregate in vast See also:numbers to breed, whether on rocky cliffs of the sea-See also:coast or on healthy islands in inland waters. Some of the settlements of the black-headed or " peewit " gull, L. ridibundus, are a source of no small profit to their proprietors,—the eggs, which are rightly accounted -a See also:great delicacy, being taken on an orderly See also:system up to a certain See also:day, and the birds carefully protected. See also:Ross's or the roseate gull, Rhodoslethia rosea, forms a well-marked genus, distinguished not so much by the See also:pink tint of its plumage (for that is found in other species) but by its small See also:dove-like See also:bill and See also:wedge-shaped tail. It is an exceedingly scarce See also:bird, and beyond its having an See also:Arctic See also:habitat, little has yet been ascertained about it. More rare still is one of the species of Xema, X. furcatum, of which only two specimens, both believed to have come from the Galapagos, have been seen. Its smaller congener See also:Sabine's gull, X. sabinii, is more common, and has been found breeding both in Arctic America and in See also:Siberia, and several examples, chiefly immature birds, have been obtained in the See also:British islands. Both species of Xema are readily distinguished from all other gulls by their forked tails. (A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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