MEDITERKANEAN BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



LARUS MEL AN CEP HA L US, Nalterer. 



Larus melanocephalus, Natterer, Isis, 1818, p. 816 ; Naum. 

 x. p. 254 ; Yarr. ed. 4, hi. p. 604; Dresser, viii. p. 365. 



Goeland-melanocephale, French ; Schwarzkopf -Move, Ger- 

 man ; Gaviota, Gavina, Spanish. 



There are, so far as I am aware, only two records of 

 the occurrence of this species in England, and some 

 doubt exists as to the first of these. Mr. H. Saunders 

 tells us, in the 4th ed. of ' Yarrell,' vol. iii. p. 604, that 

 his attention was called by the late Mr. G. R. Gray to 

 a specimen of this bird in the British Museum, purchased 

 from Mr. H. Whitely, Curator of the Royal Artillery 

 Museum at Woolwich, who in reply to Mr. Saunders's 

 enquiries informed him that it was shot in January 1866 

 near Barking Creek, by a waterman, and brought to him 

 for sale with other birds. He bought the bird not 

 knowing to what species it belonged, and took it to 

 Mr. Gray (who purchased it) in March 1866. Mr. 

 Saunders goes on to say that this specimen is a bird of 

 the first year, and that although he has not the slighest 

 doubt of the facts as above stated, there is just a chance 

 of an accidental exchange of specimen or label between 

 1866 and 1871 when he examined the bird in question, 



