on sojne Species of British Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fishes. 285 
that from a long acquaintance with the objects in question, we 
have no scruple in asserting, that the three first and the last are, 
without doubt, one and the same species, and that the other has 
been confounded with it.. 
To those who are not well acquainted with the subject, it mav 
appear arrogant and presumptuous to call in question the opi- 
nions of so many respectable authors; but we trust we shall, from 
an intimate acquaintance with the bird in question, in all its va- 
rious changes from the young to the adult, be able to prove, and 
lay before the Society, sufficient grounds of reason for an opinion 
so greatly at variance with that of so many more able ornitho- 
logists. 
In the Ornithological Dictionary we thought sufficient had been 
said, under the article Gull black-headed and red-legged, to have 
cleared away the greater part of such obscurity ; but we since 
find in the work of our estimable friend, and one of the greatest 
ornithologists of the age, which made its appearance about the 
same time as the former (from which circumstance, unfortunately, 
no advantage could be reaped from that valuable source), that 
the Brown Gull, with reference to the Brown Tern of authors, 
is there given as a distinct species. It does not, however, appear 
that this author saw the bird in question, but that the description 
was sent to him by a very able naturalist, our late worthy and much 
to be lamented friend Mr. Boys; and a very accurate description 
it is. That the bird should have been considered by him as that 
which had been so long in obscurity under the title of Brown Tern, 
as handed down to us by Ray and Willughby, is not surprising; 
and that Dr. Latham should fall into such an opinion is not more 
extraordinary; on the contrary, it was very natural, and posssibly 
this may be the identical bird : but be this as it may, it becomes 
requisite to show that the bird which now stands as a distinct 
species 
