195 
Bonapariian Gull in Europe. 
first primary to the last ; the light-coloured tip on the contrary 
becomes gradually of a deeper shade from the third to the last. 
Shafts of all the primaries white, except the upper portion of the 
first, which is dusky. Black appears on the inner web of the three 
longest primaries, much lessening both in length and breadth 
from the first to the third ; in the first it occupies four inches in 
length, and its greatest breadth from the shaft is 4 lines inch). 
The secondaries exhibit a large space of blackish brown towards 
the tip within their pearl gray margins ; the tertiaries have more 
or less of blackish brown irregularly disposed towards their tips. 
Under surface of wings entirely white, except that the portions 
of the primaries, secondaries and tertiaries, which are dark above, 
appear grayish. Entire under surface of body from the bill to 
the extremity of the under tail-coverts white, of an extremely 
faint roseate hue. The bird would I consider have attained full 
plumage at the next moult. The weight was 5^ ounces. It 
proved a male on dissection. The stomach contained the remains 
of two specimens of opossum shrimp [My sis), a little vegetable 
matter, and some small pebbles. 
The occurrence of this North American bird in Europe affords 
another opportunity for speculating whether birds can really 
cross the Atlantic, which some of the best ornithologists in Europe 
did not, at least a few years ago, believe to be possible. In my 
opinion, as fully stated on former occasions when noticing the 
occurrence of American birds in Ireland, the presumptive or 
circumstantial evidence is all in favour of their having really 
crossed the ocean*. 
In the estuary, about three miles from where the Larus Bona- 
partii was shot, the first individual also of 
Larus Sabini, 
known to visit the European coasts (as recorded by me in 1834), 
was met with ; and at the opposite side of the bay a second example 
was afterwards obtained. Since I first noticed the species, a few 
individuals have been procured on the shores of continental 
Europe. This opportunity of noticing a very rare and closely- 
allied species to the preceding may be embraced, although it is 
not American, nor has it been obtained there but in a single in- 
stance t : — I allude to the 
Larus minutus, 
a beautiful adult example of which was shot in the estuary about 
* See 1 ellow-billed American Cuckoo (Coccyzus Americanus) in ‘An- 
nals,’ vol. ix. p. 226, and American Bittern {Botaurus lentiginosus) in same 
work, vol. xvii. p, 94. 
t ‘ Faun. Bor. Amer.’ p. 426. The species is not included in the Prince 
of Canino s subsequently published list of North American Birds. 
13* 
