all in perfect nuptial plumage, haunting the inner 

 harbour, and with a number of Lesser Kestrels wheeling 

 amongst them, a little flat peninsula densely overgrown 

 with cyclamen in the foreground, and the imposing ruins 

 of the old town in the background, forming a picture 

 which will ever be bright amongst my many pleasant remi- 

 niscences of Cyprus. The next day this vast assemblage 

 of Gulls had entirely left the harbour, and we fell in 

 with them some eight miles further up the coast in, I 

 think, still larger numbers." Mr. H. Saunders observed 

 this species "apparently breeding" near Huelva, and 

 says that a score frequented the Bay of St. Jean de Luz 

 during the first fortnight of March 1882, but I have 

 never met with it except in the Mediterranean, and may 

 mention that several eggs sent to me as those of this 

 Gull from the " Marisma " of the Guadalquivir were all 

 really the produce of the Gull-billed Tern, Sterna anglica. 

 The present species nests in small numbers on the 

 western coasts of European Turkey, and on some of the 

 coast-marshes of the Black Sea. In habits this Black- 

 headed Gull does not appear to differ materially from 

 Larus ridibundus, but its cry is much harsher and deeper- 

 toned than that of the latter bird, from which it is to be 

 easily distinguished at all seasons by the greater thick- 

 ness of its bill and generally more robust form. In 

 Mr. Saunders's notice of this species, loc. supra cit., will 

 be found remarks on the differences of plumage in the 

 young of the two species here in question. In the adult 

 stage the jet-black head and coral-red bill are sufficient 

 to distinguish the present from any other European 

 Gull. 



