BONAPARTE'S GULL. 



LARUS PHILADELPHIA (Orel). 



Sterna Philadelphia, Ord, in Guthrie's Geogr. 2nd Amer. ed. 



ii. p. 319 (1815). 

 Gavia bonapartii, Macg. v. p. 010. 



Larus Philadelphia, Yarr. ed. 4, iii. p. 58 X ; Dresser, viii. 

 p. 356. 



This American Gull is a scarce and accidental straggler 

 to our Islands. I find that the editor of the 4th ed. of 

 ' Yarrell,' in his article upon this species, published in 

 March 1884, only records five British occurrences as 

 positively authenticated ; of these the earliest was at 

 Belfast on the 1st of February, 1848, the next in 

 Scotland about the end of April 1850; these are fol- 

 lowed by three occurrences in England, viz. one in 

 Falmouth Harbour on the 4th of January, 1865, another 

 at Penryn on the 10th of the same month, and the last 

 at St. Leonards early in November 1870. Two other 

 supposed occurrences in Ireland are alluded to in the 

 article to which I have referred, but the first of these 

 was, to my personal knowledge, a case of mistaken 

 identity. 



My readers will, I trust, excuse me from hunting up 



