116 THE GULLS 



marine islands. A small colony has, however, been recorded from one of the 

 Blasket Isles. On the Continent its northern breeding-range extends to Southern 

 Norway, and the south and east coast of Sweden, while it also breeds on the coast 

 of Finland, Lake Onega, near Archangel, and in the Vologda and Perm govern- 

 ments, as well as in the Faeroes. Southward it is distributed in suitable districts 

 over the Continent to the Mediterranean, but there is no proof of its breeding in 

 the Iberian Peninsula or South Italy, though it nests in Sardinia. In the Balkan 

 Peninsula it breeds in the Danube valley but not in Greece. In Asia it is met 

 with in the valleys of the Ob, Viliui, Lena, and Kolyma, as well as in 

 Kamchatka, but apparently not in the Yenesei valley, and is said to breed in 

 Transcaspia and Turkestan. Its whiter range extends to the Mediterranean and 

 North-west Africa, the Azores, Egypt, and the Nile valley to the Egyptian 

 Sudan, the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Northern India, China, Japan, and the 

 Philippine Islands. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. The blackheaded - gull is found in the British Isles at all 

 seasons, and is indeed abundant throughout the year all round our coasts, 

 although withdrawing from many inland districts in winter. Nevertheless, the 

 species is notably migratory ; within our area a distinct movement towards the 

 southern parts becomes obvious on the approach of winter, and some of the birds 

 leave our shores for still more southerly quarters. To what extent a winter 

 immigration from the north may exist is uncertain, but it is known that birds bred 

 in eastern Europe visit the south of England on passage. Some light has already 

 been thrown on the question by the recovery of " marked" birds. In the first place, 

 we have the case of a young blackheaded-gull born and marked in Aberdeenshire 

 hi 1910, and killed near Bayon, Gironde, France, about January 18, 1911 (cf. 

 Thomson, Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edin., vol. xviii. p. 217). On the other hand, we have 

 a case of a bird not only remaining within our area but actually moving northwards 

 within it : born and marked in Cumberland in 1910, found dead at Fraserburgh, 

 Aberdeenshire, on February 20, 1911 (cf. Witherby, British Birds, vol. iv. p. 336). 

 We may also summarise the results obtained by marking in North-eastern Germany, 

 in that they partly affect our area. A number of blackheaded-gulls were marked 

 as nestlings at a colony at Rossitten, at the south-eastern corner of the Baltic Sea. 

 The subsequent recoveries of these are considered to indicate three routes. One 

 follows the Baltic, North Sea, Channel, and Atlantic coasts to the Bay of Biscay ; 

 another goes part of the same way, and then crosses by the Rhine and the Rhone 

 to the Mediterranean, reaching the Balearic Isles ; the third crosses direct to the 



