Birds. 2777 



ing the day, wherever I happened to be ; and it is somewhat remarkable that no men- 

 tion is made of the black-headed gull having been seen either on the western or on the 

 southern coast of Spain. My further impression, therefore, is that Mr. Baikie is mis- 

 taken, i. e. that the birds he saw at Gibraltar were masked, and not black-headed gulls. 

 I will give you my reasons for thinking so. Mr. Baikie states that he is " perfectly fa- 

 miliar" with L. ridibundus, as, I presume, are most persons who have visited our 

 coasts ; but can he distinguish it from L. capistratus on the wing, and in winter plu- 

 mage P I trow not. The two birds are so much alike that their specific distinction 

 is doubted by some ; and if I entertain no such doubts, yet of this I am sure, that if 

 examples of both species in winter plumage were laid upon the table before me, 

 I should fail to distinguish them by the eye ; I must have recourse to measurement of 

 bill and tarsi, before I could pronounce which was which. Now, Mr. Baikie saw the 

 birds on the wing only ; for they would not have allowed him to shoot one at Gibral- 

 tar, if his life had depended on his procuring a specimen (my poor dog was forbidden 

 by the zealous authorities to ascend the Bock ; I suppose, because he was reported 

 by the sentry as having amused himself one day with hunting a little grebe), and his 

 observations were made at a time when the birds were in winter plumage. He, 

 therefore, as I opine, mistook the one species for the other — the rarer for that with 

 which he was familiar. He recognised his old acquaintances, as he supposed ; and in 

 truth, if he expected to distinguish one species from the other under such circum- 

 stances, his powers of sight must be even more acute than mine were on one occasion 

 supposed to be ; when, on a small bird rising from the ground some thirty or forty 

 yards before me, I cried out " There's another short-toed lark ! " (I had seen one for the 

 first time that day) upon which, a gentleman, who happened to be in company, turned 

 to my friends, and with the gravest of faces, with a look of surprise, amounting almost 

 to alarm, asked " What, could Mr. Bury distinguish the short toe at that distance ? " 

 Mr. Baikie, therefore, could not at that season of the year distinguish L. ridibundus 

 from L. capistratus, however near the birds may have flown to him. On the other hand, 

 I made my observations at a time when both species would have assumed their sum- 

 mer dress ; and was struck by the fact, that a bird so rare in England should be so 

 abundant at Malaga. I noted the circumstance at once, and on the spot; and feel 

 certain I did not, and could not, mistake one species for the other, though I do not pos- 

 sess the extraordinary acuteness of vision the acquaintance above alluded to would 

 give me credit for. I passed a fortnight at Gibraltar during November, 1846, and re- 

 peated my visit, which was of equal duration, in February, 1847. No mention is 

 made in my journal of either L. ridibundus or L. capistratus having been seen by me 

 on either of those occasions, although I have notes on other species of gulls and nu- 

 merous other birds. Mr. Baikie says " the number of this species (L. ridibundus) ap- 

 peared to increase about the beginning of March.'' He may be right as to the 

 species, and observed it on its migration ; but he should have known, that the fact of 

 a certain bird having been seen at Gibraltar, by no means proves it to be a native of 

 the Mediterranean. Gibraltar is a sort of posada for numerous migrants that are not 

 found to the eastward of the Bock. I believe, therefore, with most of your readers, 

 the matter will rest very nearly where I left it, in my reply to Mr. Strickland's 

 enquiry. — Charles Bwry ; Cheshunt, Herts, February 22, 1850. 



Occurrence of the Glaucous Gull (Larus glaucus) in Norfolk. — Four specimens of 

 the glaucous gull have been taken at Cromer during the past month, two of them in 

 adult plumage, in which state the bird is very rare. One of the latter is now alive in 



