on some Species of British Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fishes. 285 



that from a long acquaintance with the objects in question, we 

 liave 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 may 

 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, unfortunatelv, 

 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. ]t 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 



