(DOMINICAN GULL.)
+Larus dominicanus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 148; _iid. P. Z. S._
1871, p. 576; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 45 (Chupat) et p. 201
(Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 405 (Chupat); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884,
p. 316 (Pampas); _Saunders, P. Z. S._ 1878. p. 180; _Withington,
Ibis_, 1888, p. 472 (Lomas de Zamora). +Larus vociferus+, _Burm.
La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 518 (Buenos Ayres).
_Description._--Mantle brownish-black; primaries black, with white
tips, and a subapical patch in old birds; rest of plumage white;
bill yellow, orange at angle of lower mandible; legs and feet olive:
whole length 21·0-22·0 inches, wing 17·0-18·0. _Young_ mottled
brown.
_Hab._ Both coasts of South America, from Peru on the west and Rio on
the east, to Patagonia and Falkland Islands.
The Dominican Gull, which belongs to the same section of the group as
the well-known Black-backed Gulls of Europe, is common throughout the
Plata district in winter, from April to August. During the summer months
it confines itself to the Atlantic coast, and breeds in large numbers
in the neighbourhood of Bahia Blanca, on the extensive sand-banks
and mud-flats there; and in other suitable localities further south.
Durnford found it nesting at Tombo Point, sixty miles south of the
Chupat river.
At the approach of cold weather the Dominican Gulls leave the sea-shore
and wander inland and northward. At this season they are exclusively
flesh-eaters, with a preference for fresh meat; and when the hide
has been stripped from a dead cow or horse they begin to appear,
vulture-like, announcing their approach with their usual long hoarse
pelagic cries, and occasionally, as they circle about in the air,
joining their voices in a laughter-like chorus of rapidly-repeated
notes. Their winter movements are very irregular; in some seasons they
are rare, and in others so abundant that they crowd out the Hooded Gulls
and Carrion-Hawks from the carcass; I have seen as many as five to six
hundred Dominicans massed round a dead cow.