Lē'stris, n.

n. [Gr. ληστρίς, piratical, from ληστής, robber, pirate.] A genus of palmiped birds, distinguished from the true gulls by a pointed tail, and also by their membranous nostrils being larger, and opening nearer to the point and edge of the beak. The L. parasiticus is the arctic gull, and the L. cataractes, or Skua gull, is the most formidable of all the gull kind. They both force other sea-birds to give up their prey; hence their name.