THE GREAT BLACK-HEADED GULL. Mr, 



plumage and tail pure white; back, rump, scapulars and wing-coverts 

 bluish grey ; primary-coverts and quills white, the earlier primaries 

 with a black band near the tip, the first primary with the whole outer web 

 black ; the secondaries and tcrtiaries gradually turning to bluish grey on 

 the inner webs and finally over the whole feather, and all broadly tipped 

 with white. 



In winter the head becomes white, the nape and sides of the head 

 streaked with grey, and there is a black line in front of the eye. 



The youny, as commonly observed in Burmah, have the head white 

 mottled with brow r n ; neck pale fulvescent brown, extending in spots to 

 the sides of the breast ; back, scapulars and wing-coverts mingled brown 

 and ashy ; upper tail-coverts white ; tail with the basal two thirds white, 

 the remainder black tipped with white; primaries very dark brown, the 

 first six with some white on the inner webs near their bases, the others 

 with more white, some of it extending to the outer webs; secondaries 

 broadly edged with white ; tertiaries ashy tipped with white ; the shafts of 

 all the quills dark brown. 



Irides brown ; edges of the eyelids and gape vermilion ; bill wax-yellow, 

 vermilion towards the tip, with a black bar across both mandibles just 

 beyond the angle of the gonys, and the extreme tips beyond this orange- 

 yellow. (Hume.} 



In the young the iris is dark brown ; edges of eyelids black ; gape and 

 basal half of the margins pale yellowish ; remainder of the bill very dark 

 brown ; legs, feet and webs pale purplish brown ; claws black. 



Length about 29 inches, tail 7'5, wing 19*5, tarsus 3'2, bill from gape 

 3'8. The immature bird measures : length 26 inches, tail 6*6, wing 18'6, 

 tarsus 2-85, bill from forehead 2'2. 



The Great Black-headed Gull occurs in the winter in various parts of 

 Burmah. 1 noticed it to be abundant in the Sittang river every year, and 

 numbers used to come and visit the Pegu Canal and the large ponds in 

 connection with it. Neither Mr. Davison nor Dr. Armstrong appear to 

 have observed it on the coast ; but Mr. Blyth records it from the island 

 of Ramree, and Mr. Shopland sent me a specimen shot in the Akyab 

 harbour. 



It is found over the whole of India and Ceylon, and it extends through 

 Western Asia into Europe and North-east Africa; it is also recorded from 

 Japan, and probably it will be found in China. Mr. Swarries, the taxider- 

 mist of the Phayre Museum at Rangoon, procured many fine specimens in 

 full breeding-plumage at Bhamo, 600 miles up the Irrawaddy river. Its 

 breeding-haunts appear to be the Caspian Sea and neighbouring regions. 

 It is said to lay its eggs on sand-banks. 



Like many other Gulls this species is found inland quite as frequently 

 as on the coast. On the Sittang river I have observed as many as twenty 



