374 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XTIT, 
The parent kept good health during her captivity, and partook of frogs, 
which were supplied her frequently. She was almost always to be seen coil- 
ed up in her gumlah of water, and when molested withdrew her head beneath 
the surface, She sloughed on February 2nd and again on March 13th, 
Ranqoon, April, 1900. F, WALL, Carr. I. M.S, 
No, VII—REPORTED OCCURRENCE OF THE GREATER 
BLACK-BACKED GULL (LARUS MARINUS) IN RAJPUTANA, 
While shooting on a tank at Deoli (about 56 miles south of this station), 
I wounded a goose which fell in the middle of the tank. On procuring a 
boat and starting off to pick up my goose, I noticed a large bird hovering 
a few feet above it, and who pitched in the water and started eating my bird ; 
once or twice he actually sat’'on the goose (who by this time was dead) and 
pecked at it most vigorously and seemed very hungry. He never left the 
goose till my boat was some twenty yards off when he flew round. I recog- 
nised him at once asa Greater Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus). I shot 
him and got him into the boat with the goose, in whose back was a large hole 
where the gull had evidently started his meal. Not knowing whai a rarity I 
had got I never perserved the gull and he was thrown away. There can be no © 
doubtas to his identity ,for I remember laying him out besides the goose (Anser 
ferus) and there was only one or two inches to choose between them. Besides 
this I am well acquainted with the species in England, The only other Black- 
backed Gull in India seems to be Larus affinis, whose length Blanford gives 
as 24 inches, Now the length of Larus marinus is 30 inches, and of the Grey 
Lag Goose, male 35 inches and female 30, The measurements of these last 
two birds are from Howard Saunder’s “ Manual of British Birds,” About 
Larus marinus, Mr, Howard Saunders gives its most eastern range as the 
Mediterranean and Black Seas, and its most Western limits (from the British 
Isles) as Baffin Bay, Labrador and Florida; “ but,’ says the same author, 
‘Mr. Seebohm has given me a bird from Hakodadi in the North Island of 
“ Japan, which I identified some years ago asa Great Black-backed Gull; and 
even now, in spite of the discovery of Larus schistisagus (a new and little-known 
species roughly described as intermediate between Larus marinus and Larus 
affinis) so near, and the apparent gap in the distribution of Larus marinus, I 
cannot refer this example to any other species, Attention is specially called to 
the range of this Gull, respecting which we are rather more than usually igno- 
rant.’ Blanford in his “ Fauna of British India” does not mention the species. 
The bird I shot was fully adult with a fine dark mantle, - The date I shot it 
was November the 16th, 1899. I never realized till the other day that the species 
was as yet unrecorded from India, when I found out through looking the 
bird up in Blanford’s book, What seems to me so extraordinary is not that 
the bird should be found in India but that it should be found so far inland, 
R, MEINERTZHAGEN, 
NasiraBaD, RaJPuTANA, April, 1900. (ROYAL FUSILIERS). 
