296 MASKED GULL. 



distributed, but we bave no detailed account of its 

 habits tbere, and we have few memoranda of its 

 extra-European range. The Zoological Society have 

 received it from Erzcroom.* 



The next three species of black -headed gulls are 

 only accidentally found in Britain, and are now in- 

 troduced that attention may be attracted ; one of 

 them may be found in some locality in the Orkneys 

 or the northern islands of Scotland ; they are easily 

 confounded with the last by an inattentive observer. 



THE MASKED GULL, LARUS CAPISTRATUS. This 

 appears to be everywhere a rare species, and the 

 examples of it which have occurred in Britain have 

 been few, amounting to five or six in number. We 

 have not a specimen before us, and borrow generally 

 the British information regarding it. The first spe- 

 cimens were those in the collection of Mr. Bullock, 

 sold to Dr. Leach at the dispersion of his collec- 

 tion, and said to be taken with the young and 

 eggs in Orkney; and a third specimen has since 

 that time been procured from Shetland. It has oc- 

 curred in Wales, and to Mr. Thompson in Ireland. 

 On the Continent a few instances are also recorded, 

 but we have no information of its breeding places. 

 It may probably be a northern species ; Temminck 

 states that it is found in Baffin's Bay and Davis' 

 Straits. 



* Yarrell. 



