BONAPARTE'S GULL. 307 



LARUS PHILADELPHIA. 

 BONAPARTE'S GULL. 



(Plate 54.) 



Sterna Philadelphia, Ord, Guthrie's Geogr. 2nd Amer. ed, ii. p. 319 (1815) ; et aucto- 



rum plurimorum — Coues, Bainl, Brexoer, and Ridgioay, Saunders, Dresser, &c. 



Larus melanorhiuclius, Teinm. PI. Col. no. 504 (1830). 



Larus bonapartii, Sivains. Faun. Bor.-Amer. p. 425, pi. 72 (1831). 



Xema bonapartii (Swains.), Bona}). Comp. List B. Eur. 8f N. Amer. p. 62 (1838). 



Chroicocephalus bonapartii (*S'?^ams.), I n z t- r\ loeo nne- 



^, . ^, , , /. / „ " > Bruch, Journ. Orn. 1853, p. 105. 



Chroicocephalus subulirostris, Bonap.fiae\ 



Gavia bonapartii (<S'wrtW2s.), It, ,t • ^Qr.A „ oiq 



'^ .*- •" > i)0««^. AfiM»2rtw«i«, 1854, p. 213. 



Gavia subulirostris (Bonap.), \ 



Chroicocephalus philadelphia (Ord), Lawr. B. N. Amer. p. 852 (1858). 



Larus philadelphia (Ord), Gray, List Brit. B. p. 235 (1863). 



Bonaparte's Gull is another American species which accidentally visits 

 the British Islands. The first example was killed as it was flying over the 

 river Lagan, about a mile above the lowest bridge at Belfast, on the 1st of 

 February 1848: the bird-stuffer to whom it was taken brought it to 

 Thompson for inspection, and by him it was recorded (Newman, ' Zoologist,' 

 1848, p. 2069). A second specimen was shot about the end o£ April 1850, 

 on the shore of Loch Lomond in Dumbartonshire (Sir George Leith, 

 ' Zoologist,' 1851, p. 3117) ; it was identified by Yarrell, and was 

 exhibited by Mr. Howard Saunders at a meeting of the Zoological Society 

 on the 4th of March, 1884. A third is said by Yarrell to have been ob- 

 tained on one of the English lakes (Brit. B. iii. p. 555), but no further par- 

 ticulars are given. A fourth, which was '' pronounced by all the Natural 

 History Societies of Dublin to be Bonaparte's Gull," was shot on the Irish 

 coast, near the Skerries, on the 14th of February, 1855 (Powys, ' Zoologist,' 

 1855, p. 4762). A fifth was shot in Dublin Bay, in July 1864, by Mr. 

 Blake-Knox ('Zoologist,' 1866, p. 306), but does not seem to have been 

 sufficiently well identified. Two other examples were obtained, one at 

 Falmouth Harbour on the 4th of January, and another on the 10th of the 

 same month at Penryn, in 1865 ; whilst a third, now in the collection of 

 Mr. F. Pershouse, of Torquay, was shot by him, early in November 1870, 

 at St. Leonards in Sussex (Rodd, ' Zoologist/ 1865, p. 9501, and ' B. of 

 Cornwall,' p. 168). Bonaparte's Gull does not appear ever to have been 

 observed on any part of continental Europe; but, from its close resemblance 

 to the Black-headed Gull, it may have been overlooked there, as well as 

 in the British Islands. 



Bonaparte's Gull is an inland species, and breeds in the semi-Arctic 

 portions of North America, from Alaska to Labrador. It is not known to 



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