GREAT BLACK- HEADED GULL. 
53 
crown of head ashy-whitish, washed and mottled with brown ; 
behind the eye a dusky patch ; sides of face ashy- brown ; under 
surface of body pure white, with a band of mottled brown spots 
across the fore-neck and on the sides of the upper breast ; under 
wing-coverts wdiite, mottled with blackish along the edge of the 
wings ; primaries ashy-blackish below. 
Characters. — The large size of this Black-headed Gull renders 
it easily distinguishable from all the other hooded species, none 
of which have a wing exceeding fifteen inches. 
Range in Great Britain. This large species has once been 
obtained in Itngland, an example in full summer plumage 
having been shot off Exmouth at the end of May or beginning 
of June, 1859. 
Range outside the British Islands. — The Great Black-headed 
1 i- the^ districts of the Lower Volga and on the 
a^es of Central Asia, as far east as Koko-Nor, and it probably 
lu r "'hole of Thibet in summer. It visits the eastern 
editerranean region in winter, and is found along the Red 
ea and in Egypt down to Nubia, while at the same season it 
tisits the shores of the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean as 
lar as Ceylon and Burma. 
Habits. Scarcely anything has been recorded of the habits 
o the present species. Prjevalsky states that it is a very 
quarrelsome bird, and that its cry is harsh and like the croak 
locusts^So^' consists of fish, Crustacea, reptiles, 
sand*^' none, the eggs being laid upon the bare 
cofon^ k number, and very large. The general 
or brown with ol've stone-colour, spotted with black 
smne Zs spots or blotches of inky-grey. In 
gigantic edition small, so that the egg looks like a 
particularly those wkh\h ^ Gull-billed Tern, but in others, 
some verv icvrr ui ^ olive-tinted ground-colour, there are 
Axis of black, principally at the larger end. 
’ yo 3 3 laches; diam. 2'o5— 2 2. 
