668 MEDITERRANEAN BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



St. Jean-de-Luz, ten miles south of Biarritz. In the latter part of 

 May 1868 I saw (from the sea) numbers on some marshes in the 

 south-west of Spain, and birds have been brought to me from the 

 islets at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, where, on May 9th 1883, 

 Mr. Abel Chapman shot a bird ; but eggs from that locality, 

 originally ascribed to this species, have proved to be those of the 

 Gull-billed Tern. Many breeding-places doubtless exist in the 

 Mediterranean, as the bird is plentiful there, but none are known 

 until the Gulf of Smyrna is reached ; there are also some in the 

 Dobrudsha district of the Black Sea. Southward this Gull occurs 

 in Cyprus, as well as on the coast of Egypt. Northward it has been 

 found up to Hungary, where Baldamus stated, in 1851, that he had 

 found one nest, and I have seen a young bird from that country ; 

 while wanderers have occurred on several of the large Swiss lakes. 



Gonzenbach obtained many eggs of this Gull in the Gulf of 

 Smyrna, and Mr. Cullen trapped several birds for identification in a 

 colony on an islet in a lagoon of the Dobrudsha. The nests were of 

 sea-weed, like those of the Slender-billed Gull, L. gelasies, a species 

 which was breeding in far larger numbers in the same locality. 

 The 2-3 eggs show little or no greenish tint, but are dull white or 

 stone-colour, blotched and streaked with dark brown : measurements 

 2*2 by 1*4 in. Mr. Cullen stated that the birds, which were very 

 shy, fed upon water-beetles ; and M. Alleon, who found colonies in 

 the same district, says that this species is less aquatic and more of 

 an inland feeder than other Gulls. 



The adult in breeding-plumage has the head jet-black ; mantle 

 pearl-grey, of about the same tint as in Z. ridibufidus ; primaries 

 white terminally and delicate grey above, with merely a narrow 

 black streak along the outer web of the first quill ; tail and under- 

 parts white ; bill coral-red with a darkish band in front of the angle ; 

 legs and toes red. Length 15-5 in.; wing 1175 in. Birds which 

 have assumed the black hood for the first time exhibit black streaks 

 next the shafts of primaries 1-3 and black bars on 1-5, until the 

 following moult. In autumn the head is streaked with dark brown, 

 most thickly about the eye and the ear-coverts. In the bird of the 

 year the first five primaries have the outer webs, the shafts, and the 

 greater portion of the inner webs dark brown on both upper and under 

 sides, with nearly white edges; whereas in the young of Z. rulibiindiis 

 the shafts and contiguous portions of the inner webs are white, with 

 dark margins. Seen from below, when the birds are flying, these 

 distinctions are very noticeable ; while the robustness of the bill in 

 Z. inelanocephalus is a marked feature. 



