66 
MASKED GULL. 
BEOWiT-HEADED GULL. 
Larus capistratus , Fleming. Jenyns. Temminck. 
Chroicephulus capistratus , Eyton. 
Larus —.? Capistratus. Capistrum—k halter, or headstall. 
We are chiefly indebted to continental naturalists for par¬ 
ticulars respecting this species. 
It belongs to North America, and is found in Baffin’s Bay 
and Davis Straits. 
In Europe specimens have been procured in Italy, one in 
Liguria, in the collection of the Marquis Durazzo. In Spain 
too, it is said to occur. 
In Berkshire, one in immature plumage was obtained near 
Newbury; another, also a young bird, near Sandsfield, in 
Cumberland, on the 6th. of June, 1833. One near Nottingham, 
in January, 1854, of which William Felkin, Esq., Jun., has 
informed me; one by J. A. Drake, Esq., of Magdalen Hall, 
Oxford, at Ashford, Kent, in the summer of 1853. He saw 
another at the same time. In Suffolk, one at Aldboro-ugh, in 
the early part of April, 1848; in Westmoreland, one was 
captured near Kendal, the latter end of November, 1841. It 
had alighted on the back of a sheep, and having got its feet 
entangled among the wool, was injured by some means during 
an effort to rise, and being disabled for a moment, fell to the 
ground, and was quickly picked up by a boy. Another, a 
mature bird, was caught off Brighton, Sussex, on the 25th. of 
February, 1853. 
In Ireland it has occurred, but is extremely rare. One was 
shot in the neighbourhood of Belfast. 
