418 LARIDAA 
throughout the first year. The outer primaries are chiefly 
dark brownish-black, but they soon become streaked with 
white along the middle of the inner webs. 
Break. Deep carmine. 
Fret. Deep carmine. 
Ir1DEs. Very dark brown. 
AYERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 
TOTAL LENGTH ... ea ire 6 in. 
WING oe as an: sao , LLY De gay 
BEAK fate ae Ate te cee de gee 
TTARSO-METATARSUS ee sine iG 
iDreres es cae Bee wee »©69 0 Se ee 
Allied Species and Representative Forms.—The South- 
eastern representative is L. brunneicephalus, a bird with a 
paler brown head and different wing-pattern. 
MEDITERRANEAN BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
Larus melanocephalus (Natterer). 
Coloured Figures.—Dresser, ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. viii, pl. 597, 
fig. 2; Lilford, ‘Coloured Figures,’ vol. vi, pl. 20. 
There appear to be but two records of the occurrence of 
this extremely rare visitor to our shores. 
One, that of an adult in winter-plumage, shot on Breydon 
Broad, Norfolk, received by Mr. G. Smith, of Great Yar- 
mouth, on December 26th, 1886; this, the first well-authen- 
ticated specimen procured in the British Isles, was ex- 
hibited by Mr. Saunders at a meeting of the Zoological 
Society of London, on January 18th, 1887. 
The second, that of an immature bird, said to have been 
obtained near Barking Creek, on the Thames, in January, 
1866, identified by Mr. Saunders in 1871, and now in the 
British Museum. 
