334 
LARIDiE. 
birds in ploughed fields bordering the Moray Frith, east of 
Inverness; and in January 1849, remarked large flocks of them 
about Loch-in-daal, Islay. They may be considered as common 
in Ireland as in England or Scotland. 
Among some birds kindly given to me by Dr. Cantor, in 1840, 
as killed about the Bay of Bengal, is an adult gull of this 
species, identical in all respects with an Irish specimen with which 
it was compared. 
THE BItOWN-HEADED, OK MASKED GULL. 
Lams capistratus , Temm. 
At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, in March 1833,* 
I exhibited an adult specimen of this bird, shot at the river Lagan, 
near Belfast, on the 28th of August, 1832. The specimen, previous 
to its being thus exhibited, was carefully compared by Mr. Yarrell and 
myself, with one from Shetland, in the collection of the society, and 
which had been described by that gentleman in the Proceedings for 
1831, p. 151. Though not in the same state of plumage, they were 
found to be perfectly identical in species. A description of the Irish 
specimen, drawn up previous to its being skinned, was as follows : — 
Length from the point of the beak to the end of the tail-feathers, 15 inches; 
from the point of the beak to the first feathers, less than one inch ; from the 
point of the beak to the end of the gape, 1 inch 10 lines ; the second primary is 
f of an inch longer than the first ; length of the tarsus, 1 inch 6 lines ; of the 
middle toe and nail, 1 inch 6 lines. The beak towards the base all red ; towards 
the tip black ; primaries white, edged and tipped with black, broadest in the inner 
web, shafts white ; legs and toe3 pale red, webs of the feet deep reddish-brown. 
Irides, deep reddish-brown. Upper mandible straight for half its length from the 
base, the other half much arched and extending more than £ of an inch over the 
lower mandible. 
On the 28th of June, 1834, I shot a bird of this kind (of the pre- 
ceding year), which was accompanied by several others in similar 
plumage, near Minish Island, Clew Bay, county Mayo, and more 
were observed in the same bay a few days afterwards. But I then 
doubted if L. capistratus be a distinct species, and if they be not rather 
Noticed in Proceedings Z. S., p. 33. 
