604. LARIDiE. 



young bird of tlie year killed in August ; at which period 

 the head is marked with greyish-brown, on a ground of 

 white ; the back, scapulars, smaller wing-coverts, and the 

 tertials mottled with brown ; greater coverts and secondaries 

 french-grey ; the first three primaries black on the outer 

 webs and on the margins of the inner webs, with white 

 shafts and centres ; tail-feathers white, with a broad bar of 

 black at the end ; beak, legs, and feet yellowish-brown. 



In still younger birds there is, for a short time, a dark 

 line on the inner web next the shaft, but the permanent 

 characteristic of this species is that the central portion of 

 the outer primaries is always white. 



The young in down is bufty-brown, spotted or streaked 

 with black. 



The Masked Gull, Lams capistratus of Temminck, de- 

 scribed and figured in former Editions of this work, is now 

 generally admitted to have been based upon small examples 

 of this species — generally females — with hoods only partially 

 developed, or contracted by the make-up of the preserved 

 skins. Many such specimens measure only eleven inches in 

 length of wing. 



The Mediterranean Black- headed Gull, Larus melau- 

 ocephaliis, Natterer, was recorded by the Editor (Ibis, 1872, 

 p. 79) as having been obtained on the Lower Thames. His 

 attention was called to a specimen in the British Museum by 

 the late Mr. G. R. Gray, who stated that it had been pur- 

 chased from Mr. H. Whitely, curator of the Eoyal Artillery 

 Museum at Woolwich. The latter, in reply to the Editor's 

 inquiries, wrote to him as follows : — 



" I find, upon looking back at my books, that I sold Mr. 

 G. Gray a Gull on the 23rd of March, 18G6, which, at the 

 time, he took to be a hybrid between the Common Gull and 

 the Kittiwake. This bird was shot in the month of January, 

 1866, near Barking Creek, by a waterman, and brought to 

 me for sale with other birds : I bought this bird, not know- 

 ing what species it was, and at the date mentioned took it to 

 Mr. Gray." 



