all in perfect nuptial plumage, haunting the inner
harbour, and with a number of Lesser Kestrels wheeling
amongst them, a little flat peninsula densely overgrown
with cyclamen in the foreground, and the imposing ruins
of the old town in the background, forming a picture
which will ever be bright amongst my many pleasant reminiscences
of Cyprus. The next day this vast assemblage
of Gulls had entirely left the harbour, and we fell in
with them some eight miles further up the coast in, I
think, still larger numbers." Mr. II. Saunders observed
this species "apparently breeding" near ITuelva, and
says that a score frequented the Bay of St. Jean de Luz
during the first fortnight of March 1882, but I have
never met with it except in the Mediterranean, and may
mention that several eggs sent to me as those of this
Gull from the " Marisma " of the Guadalquivir were all
really the produce of the Gull-billed Tern, Sterna anglica.
The present species nests in small numbers on the
western coasts of European Turkey, and on some of the
coast-marshes of the Black Sea. In habits this Black-headed
Gull does not appear to differ materially from
Larus ridibiindus, but its cry is much harsher and deeper-toned
than that of the latter bird, from which it is to be
easily distinguished at all seasons by the greater thickness
of its bill and generally more robust form. In
Mr. Saunders's notice of this species, loc. supra cit., will
be found remarks on the differences of plumage in the
young of the two species here in question. In the adult
stage the jet-black head and coral-red bill are sufficient
to distinguish the present from any other European
Gull.