The Great Black-Headed Gull. 75 



Family— LARID&. Subfamily— LARJN^E. 



The Great Black-Headed Gull. 



Lar us ichthyaetus, PALL. 



THIS Royal Sea-Gull, as Canon Tristram calls the present magnificent species 

 of the hooded Gulls, has a similar claim to a place among the birds 

 of England to the last species. A fine adult bird was shot near Exmouth, in 

 June, 1859, in full summer plumage. Its breeding region is Southern Russia and 

 Central Asia; while in winter it visits the Mediterranean, Northern Egypt, 

 Palestine and India. Canon Tristram records that during winter and spring 

 Gulls were very abundant on the Sea of Galilee. " From morning to night," he 

 says, " they pass and repass up and down its short length — the magnificent Larus 

 ichthyaetus in particular making the circuit of the lake close to the edge and 

 always within shot, as though to keep himself in exercise. We got this Royal 

 Sea-Gull in the finest possible plumage in the mouth of March. Where they go to 

 breed I cannot say ; they certainly do not breed in Palestine ; probably they take 

 an easy flight to the Red Sea and enjoy their spring among its coral reefs." 

 According to Pallas they probably breed on the Caspian Sea. 



This species has in summer a splendid black hood, relieved by a white spot 

 above and below the eye ; the whole throat, under side, tail and lower neck pure 

 white; the back, the mantle, the wing-coverts dark lavender grey; the primaries 

 white, with a deep black sub-terminal bar, save the first, which is all black except 

 the tip ; bill orange from base to the tip, with a black bar across both mandibles 

 near the tip ; legs and feet are rich yellow, with a greenish tinge. 



Little is known of the habits of this bird — which is the largest of the hooded 

 species, and by this character easily distinguished from all others. It is also 

 the only one "which has unspotted young" (Saunders). 



