564 LARID^E. 



in Cornwall, and is now in the collection of E. H. Rodd, 

 Esq., of Penzance. 



Since then five or six others have been procured ; one 

 on the estuary at Belfast in 1848. One at Yarmouth, 

 Norfolk, in May, 1849, which was beginning to assume 

 the black colour on ihff head; one at Galway, in 1850; 

 one at Bridlington, in October of the same year, 1850 ; and 

 one at Shetland, in April, 1853. 



The egg of this species, figured by Mr. Hewitson, is 

 one inch five-eighths in length by one inch and a quarter 

 in breadth ; olive brown, spotted with two shades of red- 

 dish-brown. 



Professor Nilsson says this species is a summer visitor 

 to the marshes in the vicinity of the Baltic and Gottland, 

 where it breeds, but he has never seen the eggs ; it is also 

 said to visit Russia and Siberia. It is included by the 

 ornithologists of Germany among the birds of that country. 

 M. Temminck says he has killed two, and examined 

 several others in Holland. Professor Necker and Dr. 

 Schinz have recorded four or five instances of this species 

 having been taken about different lakes in Switzerland. 

 It has been observed at Genoa ; M. Savi includes it in his 

 Birds of Italy, and it is seen on the Adriatic and the 

 Mediterranean every season. It is said to be found about 

 the Caspian Sea in winter. 



It feeds on insects and worms, according to M. Tem- 

 minck ; but very little of its habits is known. On more 

 than one occasion when shot in this country it was asso- 

 ciated with Terns. 



The figure of this bird in its summer plumage at the 

 head of this subject, was taken from a specimen given me 

 by Mr. Gould. In this specimen the bill is reddish-brown ; 

 the irides very dark brown ; the whole of the head and the 

 upper part of the neck, all round, is black ; the neck below 



