LARIDA. 667 
THE MEDITERRANEAN BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
LARUS MELANOCEPHALUS, Natterer. 
On December 26th 1886, Mr. G. Smith of Great Yarmouth in- 
formed me that he had just received an adult example of this species 
in winter-plumage, shot on Breydon Broad; the bird was examined 
in the flesh by Messrs. Southwell, J. H. Gurney and others, and I 
subsequently exhibited it at a meeting of the Zoological Society of 
London. This is the first authenticated instance of the occurrence 
of the Mediterranean Black-headed Gull in the British Islands. 
There is, however, an immature specimen in the British Museum, 
which is said (and, I believe, with truth) to have been shot in January 
1866, near Barking Creek on the Thames ; but this was not correctly 
identified until I saw it in 1871, and, considering the possibility of 
some accidental exchange during the interval, I did not include the 
species in the 4th edition of ‘Yarrell.’ Its characteristics were, 
however, described in that work, and the result was the identification 
of the Breydon bird. 
I have seen examples of this Gull from the mouth of the Somme 
in the north of France, whence a southerly gale would soon bring it 
to our coasts, and it is found nearly every year at the mouth of the 
Gironde ; while there may be some breeding-place along the low 
shores to the southward, as about a score of birds, unmistakably of 
this species, were observed during the first week of March 1882 at 
