34 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Black-headed Gulls at the Plannan Isles. In the early 

 morning of 31st December 1916, a pair of strange Gulls arrived at 

 Eilean Mor, one of the Flannan Isles. As I had never seen birds 

 like them before, I shot one and sent it to Dr Eagle Clarke for 

 identification. He tells me that it is an immature specimen of 

 the Black-headed Gull (Lanes ridibundus), a species which is 

 uncommon so far west, being a littoral or shore bird during the 

 autumn and winter, and rarely visiting such pelagic islands as 

 the Flannans and St Kilda. James Campbell, Flannan Islands 

 Lighthouse. 



English-bred Black-headed Gulls recovered in Scotland. 



Besides the English-bred Black-headed Gulls (Lanes ridibundus) 

 nesting in Scotland, which I mentioned in the December number of 

 the Scottish Naturalist, it may be of interest to enumerate the 

 others also recovered in Scotland, as mentioned in my article in 

 British Birds, vol. viii. pp. 209-218. 



Of those marked at Ravenglass, in Cumberland, which went 

 north by the west coast, three only reached north of the Clyde, 

 viz., one, six months later to Argyllshire, and two to Dumbarton- 

 shire three months afterwards. Others occurred in Lanark, 

 Renfrew, and Ayr, and in the neighbouring counties of Dumfries 

 and Kirkcudbright, within one to seven months, and another in 

 Dumfries a year and three months after being marked as a nestling. 

 Of those travelling north from Ravenglass up the east coast, one 

 was obtained as far north as Fraserburgh, in Aberdeenshire, eight 

 months afterwards, and one three months afterwards in Perthshire. 

 Five others were reported from the counties of Midlothian, Stirling, 

 Kinross, and Selkirk, from one to three months after marking. 

 Of those marked on Denton Fell, Cumberland, two occurred in 

 Dumfriesshire, two years and ten months, and two years and seven 

 months, respectively, after marking. 



Since my article was written other Ravenglass-bred Black- 

 headed Gulls have been recovered in Kirkcudbrightshire three 

 years and seven months after marking, and a bird marked on the 

 island of Anglesea, North Wales, was recovered on Loch Long, 

 in Dumbartonshire, four and a half years afterwards. 



Two other Ravenglass-bred birds were also recovered at 

 Thornhill, in Dumfriesshire, and in Glasgow, five years and 

 three months, and three years and three months, respectively, after 

 marking as nestlings. H. W. Robinson, M.B.O.U., Lancaster. 



