MEDITERRANEAN BLACK-HEADED GULL.
LARUS MELANOCEPHALUS, Nalterer.
Larus melanoeephalus, Natterer, Isis, 1818, p. 816; Naum.
x. p. 2 5 4 ; Yurr. ed. 4, iii. p. 601; Dresser, viii. p. 365.
Goeland-melanocephale, French ; Schwarzkopf-Move, German
; Gaviota, Gavina, Spanish.
There are, so far as I am aware, only two records of
the occurrence of this species in England, and some
doubt exists as to the first of these. Mr. II. Saunders
tells us, in the 4th ed. of ' Yarrell,' vol. iii. p. 604, that
his attention was called by the late Mr. G. R. Gray to
a specimen of this bird in the British Museum, purchased
from Mr. II. Whitely, Curator of the Royal Artillery
Museum at Woolwich, who in reply to Mr. Saunders's
enquiries informed him that it was shot in January 1866
near Barking Creek, by a waterman, and brought to him
for sale with other birds. He bought the bird not
knowing to what species it belonged, and took it to
Mr. Gray (who purchased it) in March 1866. Mr.
Saunders goes on to say that this specimen is a bird of
the first year, and that although he has not the slighest
doubt of the facts as above stated, there is just a chance
of an accidental exchange of specimen or label between
1866 and 1871 when he examined the bird in question,