SLENDER-BILLED GULL. 99 



Two instances are related of its having been seen 

 by M. Cantraine in Sicily, and tbe following is copied 

 from the "Faune Meridionale" of M. Crespon: — "When 

 the ornithology of the Gard appeared, I first made 

 known that this new species was found in France. 

 Temminck had only previously received two skins 

 from Italy, But in the spring of 1842 I had brought 

 to me 'five of the same bird, which had been captured 

 on the borders of the sea. I saw at a glance that 

 two of the females had already begun to sit, and I 

 no longer doubted that it nested in France. Having 

 informed myself where these specimens came from, I 

 went in search of their eggs, which were previously 

 unknown to me. I arrived, but not without some 

 difficulty, at the top of a sand-hill, which was entirely 

 surrounded by the sea, and I there found some eggs 

 of which the following is a description: — As large as 

 a hen's egg, white, but covered with a great number 

 of spots, more or less large, which v/ere black, blackish 

 brown, or ash-colour, more numerous at the lai'ger 

 end. Some of the eggs were almost entirely white, 

 and it was not without trouble that I found some 

 ashy spots, as though they had been effaced. There 

 were some individuals of this species of Gull flying 

 about the spot." 



The description of M. Crespon, says Degland, of the 

 eggs of this bird, "agrees Avith that which M. Moquin- 

 Tandon gave to me; according to whom they would 

 be of a dirty white with dark grey and brown black 

 spots. Great diameter five centimetres four millemetres, 

 small diameter three centimetres eight millemetres." 



Dr. E. Baldamus (" Naumannia," 1853, p. 419, et seq.) 

 has the following remarks: — "These eggs differ at a 

 glance from all other Gulls' eggs, in having one 



