THE BONAPARTIAN GULL. 
317 
of February 1849, Mr. F. Rankin wounded a gull there very 
much smaller than the L. ridihundus, and had it running about 
his garden for some days, when it disappeared, he knew not how. 
On seeing the preserved specimen of the adult little gull in winter 
plumage in the Belfast Museum, he at once pronounced it to be 
of the same species. 
In November 1848, another little gull in adult plumage was 
shot in Belfast Bay, but unfortunately was lost as a specimen. 
Two instances of this bird^s occurrence in Scotland (Jardine), 
and several of its having been procured on various parts of the 
coast of England, are on record.* It appears to have been 
occasionally met with in most of the countries of Europe, but 
properly belongs to the more eastern portion of the continent. 
Dr. Richardson mentions one instance of its having been obtained 
in North America. 
THE BONAPARTIAN GULL. 
Lams Bonajoartii , Rich, and Swains. 
Has been once procured, 
Under the circumstances which have been fully detailed in the 
f Annals of Natural History 3 for 1848 (vol. i. p. 192, new series). 
They are as follows : — “ A specimen of this beautiful little gull — 
the first known to have visited Europe — was killed at the tidal 
portion of the river Lagan, between Ormeau Bridge and the 
Botanic Garden, about a mile above the lowest bridge at the 
town of Belfast, on the 1st of February, 1848. It was flying 
singly. The person who shot the bird, attracted by its pretty 
appearance merely, left it to be preserved with a taxidermist, who, 
on receipt of any birds either rare or unknown to him, kindly 
brings them for my inspection. I had thus fortunately an oppor- 
tunity of examining the bird previous to its being skinned, when 
* Mr. Macgillivray incorrectly mentions the individuals procured in Ireland as 
having been “ immature.” — ‘ Man. Brit. Birds/ vol. ii. p. 242. 
