300 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
I do not think there is any doubt of the correctness of 
this identification ; similar specimens have often been 
obtained in the plains of India during the cold season, and 
have usually been referred to L. fuscus, but I have young and 
adult of L. argentatus from both Europe and India (it is very 
common in winter in the Nagjufgurgh Jeel, near Delhi, along 
with Chroicocephalus ichthyactuSj X. brunneicephalay and X. 
ridibunda), and I myself have no doubt that immature speci- 
mens of this species are what in most cases have done duty 
in Indian collections for L. fuscus, no Indian inland 
killed specimen of which I have ever yet seen. Dr. J erdon 
sent an adult, however, of this species to the Asiatic 
Society's Museum from the Coromandel coast. I note that 
with this exception_, L, fuscus, so far as I know, has never 
been observed eastwards of the Red Sea, whereas L. argen- 
tatus has been found in Dauria (Radde), the Lower Amur 
(Schrenk), Japan and China. 
980. Xema brunneicephala (Jerdon). (PI. XXXII.) 
The Brown-headed Gull was very abundant in J uly, at an 
elevation of about 15,000 feet, in a small stream running 
down from Chagra into the Pangong Lake. 
The birds were in full breeding plumage, and probably 
had, or had had, nests in the immediate vicinity. When 
these tippings there is often a spot or band of white on one or both webs 
in the first and second quills. 
Young. — The young var}- much according to age ; in some the bill is 
dusky yellow — in others brownish, yellowish at the tip, in others a dino^y 
slate colour, pinkish at the gape and at the base of the lower mandible. 
The iris varies through every shade from brown to pale yellow. The feet 
are much as in the adult, but more livid. The w^hole head, neck, back 
scapulars, lesser wing coverts, breast, abdomen, and lower parts generally 
are greyish white, streaked, spotted, and barred with ashy brown, the 
throat only being spotless. The primaries are slaty black, narrowly- 
tipped albescent, the secondaries are greyish brown paling towards their 
bases. The tail is black with a slaty bloom narrowly tipped with white, 
the feathers more or less variegated with white towards their bases. 
Other birds more approach the adult, but have their backs a somewhat 
darker bluish grey ; the tail broadly tipped with dark brown and exhibit- 
ing faint traces of other narrow brown bars. Some of the coverts are 
like the back, but most of the lesser ones are still greyish brown. 
