I.ARID.-E. 



651 



THE MEDITERRANEAN BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



Larus melanocephalus, Natterer. 



On December 26th 1886, Mr. G. Smith of Great Yarmouth in- 

 formed me that he had just received an adult example of this species 

 in winter-plumage, shot on Breydon Broad ; the bird was examined 

 in the flesh by Messrs. Southwell, J. H. Gurney jun. and others, 

 and I subsequently exhibited it at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society of London. This is the first authenticated instance of the 

 occurrence of the Mediterranean Black-headed Gull in the British 

 Islands, but there is an immature specimen in the British Museum, 

 which is said (and, I believe, with truth) to have been shot in 

 January 1866, near Barking Creek on the Thames; this, however, 

 was not correctly identified until I saw it in 187 1, and, considering 

 the possibility of some accidental exchange during the interval, I 

 did not feel justified in including the species in the 4th edition of 

 'YarrelL' A description of its characteristics was, however, given in 

 that work, and led to the identification of the Breydon bird. 



As a straggler this (iuU has been obtained at the mouth of the 

 Somme in the north of France, whence a southerly gale would soon 

 bring it to our coasts ; and I believe that it is found nearly every year 

 at the mouth of the Gironde, while I think there must be some 

 breeding-place along the low shores to the southward, as I observed 

 about a score of birds during the first week of March 1882, at St. 



