Letters, Announcements, &;c. 79 



mileSj we were frequently visited by Scolopacida, Hirunclinidce, 

 and Passerina, and this in fine weather. 



Yours, &c., 



Rowland M. Sperling. 



Sir, — Some months since, when examining the British-killed 

 Larus atricilla in the jNIontag'u collection at the British Museuui, 

 Mr. G. R. Gray called my attention to a bird obtained in the 

 Thames and also ascribed to that species. On subsequently 

 comparing this individual with a series of various allied species 

 in my collection, I identified it, with the complete concurrence of 

 Mr. Gray, as an immature example of Larus melanocephalus, a 

 Gull which, from its rich black hood and bright red bill, cannot 

 fail to be familiar to every one who has traversed the Mediter- 

 ranean in spring and summer. Mr. Gray informed me that he 

 obtained it on the 23rd March, 1866, from Mr. H. Whitely, 

 curator of the Royal Artillery Museum at Woolwich, who, in 

 reply to my inquiries wrote to me as follows : — 



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

 Gray a Gull on the 23rd of March, 1866, which, at the time, he 

 took to be a hybrid betv.een the Common Gull and the Kitti- 

 wake. 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 knowing what species it 

 was, and at the date mentioned took it to Mr. Gray.^^ 



The specimen in question is a bird of the first year, in pre- 

 cisely the same state of plumage as a Maltese specimen shot 

 early in February. In the adult plumage this species is distin- 

 guishable at a glance from L. ridibundus ; and even immature 

 birds of the former show a stronger bill and somewhat larger 

 tarsi ; still the best distinction exists in the first primary. In 

 young L. melanocephalus that portion of the inner web which 

 lies next to the shaft is smoke-coloured on both upper and under 

 sides, whereas in L. ridibundus it is white, as is also the shaft, 

 This holds good until L. melanocephalus has lost all colour on the 

 inner web of the first primary, when the dark edging of the same 

 feather in L. ridibundus forms a still more marked distinction. 



