760 Mr. D. A. Banneiman on the [Ibis, 



bird personally, the Black-beaded Gull is mentioned first by 

 Serra (whose account published in the 'Revista de Canarias' 

 between 1879 and 1882 I have not seen) as an occasional 

 though rare visitor. 



Other ornithologists do not appear to have met with the 

 species until I saw it mysell: in the islands. I first met 

 with L. ridibundus ou tlie 20th oi: February, 1911, when 

 numbers of them visited Las Palmas harbour and remained 

 until the end of the month. All seemed to be immature 

 birds, and the three * which I shot appeared to be in their 

 second year. I did not see a single fully adult bird (Ibis, 

 1912, p. 577). 



I next saw this species in Lanzarote ; here I identified an 

 adult bird in full breeding-plumage with entire brown head, 

 which had been obtained by Don Gonzalez y Gonzalez in or 

 near Arrecife harbour. I could not ascertain the date when 

 it had been shot (Ibis, 1914, p. 63). 



Range. The Black-headed Gull breeds in Europe gener- 

 ally southwards to the Mediterranean, and through 

 temperate Asia. It has an extensive winter range^ visiting 

 north Africa, extending eastwards throngh India and China 

 to Japan. 



Rissa tridactyla tridactyla. Kittiwake. 



Lurus iiidactt/lus Linn. Syst. Nat. 10th ed. 1758, p. 136 

 — Type locality : Great Britain. 



An Occasional Visitor in winter. 



The Kittiwake is not often seen in Canarian waters at the 

 present day. Godman was quite wrong when he wrote (Ibis, 

 1872, p. 222) : " Both this and the following Gull [Lams 

 fuscus^ probably breed about the coasts in Teneriffe,"' 

 adding, possibly correctly, "I saw either this species or L. 

 canus in the middle of May in Teneriffe, though I failed to 

 secure specimens." Meade- Waldo saw " very few of these 

 gulls " during his travels amongst the islands (Ibis, 1893, 

 p. 206) ; and certainly, if, as Bolle affirms (J. f. O. 1857, 



* Skins in the British Museum. 



