668 MEDITERRANEAN BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
St. Jean-de-Luz, ten miles south of Biarritz. In the latter part of 
May 1868 I saw (from the sea) numbers on some marshes in the 
south-west of Spain, and birds have been brought to me from the 
islets at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, where, on May oth 1883, 
Mr. Abel Chapman shot a bird; but eggs from that locality, 
originally ascribed to this species, have proved to be those of the 
Gull-billed Tern. Many breeding-places doubtless exist in the 
Mediterranean, as the bird is plentiful there, but none are known 
until the Gulf of Smyrna is reached; there are also some in the 
Dobrudsha district of the Black Sea. Southward this Gull occurs 
in Cyprus, as well as on the coast of Egypt. Northward it has been 
found up to Hungary, where Baldamus stated, in 1851, that he had 
found one nest, and I have seen a young bird from that country; 
while wanderers have occurred on several of the large Swiss lakes. 
Gonzenbach obtained many eggs of this Gull in the Gulf of 
Smyrna, and Mr. Cullen trapped several birds for identification in a 
colony on an islet in a lagoon of the Dobrudsha. The nests were of 
sea-weed, like those of the Slender-billed Gull, Z. ge/astes, a species 
which was breeding in far larger numbers in the same locality. 
The 2-3 eggs show little or no greenish tint, but are dull white or 
stone-colour, blotched and streaked with dark brown : measurements 
2'2 by 1‘4in. Mr. Cullen stated that the birds, which were very 
shy, fed upon water-beetles ; and M. Alléon, who found colonies in 
the same district, says that this species is less aquatic and more of 
an inland feeder than other Gulls. 
The adult in breeding-plumage has the head jet-black; mantle 
pearl-grey, of about the same tint as in Z. ridibundus; primaries 
white terminally and delicate grey above, with merely a narrow 
black streak along the outer web of the first quill; tail and under- 
parts white ; bill coral-red with a darkish band in front of the angle ; 
legs and toes red. Length 15°5 in.; wing 11°75 in. Birds which 
have assumed the black hood for the first time exhibit black streaks 
next the shafts of primaries 1-3 and black bars on 1-5, until the 
following moult. In autumn the head is streaked with dark brown, 
most thickly about the eye and the ear-coverts. In the bird of the 
year the first five primaries have the outer webs, the shafts, and the 
greater portion of the inner webs dark brown on both upper and under 
sides, with nearly white edges; whereas in the young of Z. ridibundus 
the shafts and contiguous portions of the inner webs are white, with 
dark margins. Seen from below, when the birds are flying, these 
distinctions are very noticeable ; while the robustness of the bill in 
L. melanocephalus is a marked feature. 
