212 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



these come in tlie dark colour. The young birds 

 in their hrst feathers are nearly brown, but the 

 grey feathers make their appearance amongst the 

 brown ones at an earlier stage than in most other 

 gulls. The primary quills, which are white in the 

 centre with a margin of black, vary also a good deal 

 with age, the black margins growing narrower and 

 the white in places extending through the black 

 margin to the edge, so that in adult birds the black 

 margins are not so complete as in younger 

 examples. 



Professor Ansted mentions the Laughing Gull in 

 his list, by which I presume he means the present 

 species, and marks it as only occurring in Guernsey. 

 There is no specimen in the Museum. As it is just 

 possible that the Mediterranean Black-headed Gull, 

 Larus vielanocephalus, may occur in the Islands, — 

 as it does so in France as far as Bordeaux, and has 

 once certainly extended its Avanderings as far as the 

 British Islands, — it may be worth while to point out 

 the principal distinctions. In the adult bird the 

 head of L. melanocephalus in the breeding-season is 

 black, not brown as in L. ridihundus, and the first 

 three primaries are white with the exception of a 

 narrow streak of black on the outer web of the 

 first, and not white with a black margin as in 

 L. ridihundus. In younger birds, however, the 

 primaries are a little more alike, but the first 

 primary of L. melanocephalus is black or nearly so ; 

 in this state Mr. Howard Saunders has given plates 



