A member of the Herring Gull/Lesser Black-backed Gull complex, the Caspian gull (taxon Larus cachinnans) originates from the region north of the Black Sea and eastwards from there to Kazakhstan. Larus appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird, and cachinnans means "laughing", from cachinnare, "to laugh". Identifying these gulls is difficult, but in general: The pink-legged gulls of Britain and other northern countries are still called Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus), the yellow-legged ones from the Mediterranean, the Atlantic coast of Iberia, Morocco and the Atlantic Islands are called Yellow-legged Gulls (Larus michahellis) and the ones that have pale pink or pale straw-coloured legs, and which breed north of the Black Sea, in the Ukraine and east of there, are called Caspian Gulls (Larus cachinnans).
