ola LARUS RIDIBUNDUS. 
LARUS RIDIBUNDUS, Linneus. 
PEWIT or BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
§ 4524, One—From Mr. Williamson, of Scarborough, 1843. 
§ 4525. One—From Mr. Yarrell as “ Larus capistratus,” 
1845. 
Looks like a Moorhen’s. 
§ 4526. One.—Orkney, 1848. From Mr. George Harvey, of 
Stromness. 
§ 4527. Two.—Orkney, 1850. From Mr. George Harvey. 
With reference to this “ Hooded Gull, L. capistratus,’ for which 
Orkney is, I believe, the original locality, though very few Gulls with 
a black head do breed in Orkney, I may here enter an observation 
communicated to me, I believe, by Dr. Frere, that Mr. Dowell had 
ascertained by careful observations made at a great breeding-place (I 
think Scoulton Mere) that L. ridibundus and L. capistratus are one 
and the same species. 
[Larus capistratus (the Masked, Hooded, or Lesser Brown-headed Gull of 
some English writers) was a phantom species described by Temminck in 1820 
(Man. d’Orn. ed. 2, ii. p. 785) as being ‘commun aux Orcades”; but though 
admitted to a place by Yarrell even in 1856 (Brit. Birds, ed. 3, ili. p. 566), it 
has been long since consigned to deserved obscurity. While it was supposed 
to exist it caused a good deal of trouble to ornithologists, some of whom were 
always seeing it in slightly undersized examples of L. ridibundus. | 
§ 4528. Thirty-three—Scoulton Mere, Norfolk. From Dr. 
Frere, 1851. 
Out of six dozen from Scoulton Mere. Dr. Frere has some very 
remarkable varieties of this egg selected out of some ten thousand. 
A few of those given to me are probably from Holland, says the 
Doctor. 
[Among these are two dwarfs. | 
