334 LABTD.T5. 



birds in ploughed fields bordering the Moray Frith, east of 

 Inverness; and in January 1849, remarked large flocks of them 

 about Loch-in-daal, Islay. They may be considered as common 

 in Ireland as in England or Scotland. 



Among some birds kindly given to me by Dr. Cantor, in 1840, 

 as killed about the Bay of Bengal, is an adult gull of this 

 species, identical in all respects with an Irish specimen with which 

 it was compared. 



THE BllOWN-HEADED, OR IVIASKED GULL. 



Larus capistratus, Temm. 



At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, in March 1833,* 

 I exhibited an adult specimen of this bird, shot at the river Lagan, 

 near Belfast, on the 38th of August, 1832. The specimen, previous 

 to its being thus exhibited, was carefully compared by Mx. Yarrell and 

 myself, with one from Shetland, in the collection of the society, and 

 which had been described by that gentleman in the Proceedings for 

 1831, p. 151. Though not in the same state of plumage, they were 

 found to be perfectly identical in species. A description of the Irish 

 specimen, drawn up previous to its being skinned, was as follows : — 



Length from the point of the beak to the end of the tail-feathers, 15 inches; 

 from the point of the beak to the fii'st feathers, Jg- less than one inch ; from the 

 point of the beak to the end of the gape, 1 inch 10 lines ; the second piimary is 

 1^ of an inch longer than the fii-st ; length of the tarsus, 1 inch 6 lines ; of the 

 middle toe and naU, 1 inch 6 lines. The beak towards the base all red ; towai-ds 

 the tip black ; primaries white, edged and tipped with black, broadest iu the inner 

 web, shafts white ; legs and toes pale red, webs of the feet deep reddish-brown. 

 Irides, deep reddish-brown. Upper mandible straight for half its length fi-om the 

 base, the other half mnch arched and extending more than \ of an inch over the 

 lower mandible. 



On the 28th of June, 1834, I shot a bird of this kind (of the pre- 

 ceding year), which was accompanied by several others in similar 

 plumage, near Minish Island, Clew Bay, county Mayo, and more 

 were observed in the same bay a few days afterwards. But I then 

 doubted if L. capistratus be a distinct species, and if they be not rather 



* Noticed in Proceedings Z. S., p. .33. 



