GEEAT BLACK-HEADED GULL.
LARUS ICHTHYAETUS, Pall.
Larus ichthyaetus, Pall. Ecise Russ. Reichs, ii. App. p. 713
(1773); Yarr. cel. 4, hi. p. 609; Dresser, viii. p. 369.
The only specimen of this fine Gull that has been
hitherto recorded to have occurred in England was shot
near the mouth of the river Exe by one Mr. Pine, a
boatman, about the end of May 1859, and is now preserved
in the Exeter Museum. It is an adult in full
summer plumage. I find that the best-known breeding-quarters
of this Gull are on the islands and low-lying
shores of the Caspian Sea and the lakes of Turkestan.
It is certainly very uncommon in the Mediterranean, and
I never met with it on any part of that sea, but it is by
no means rare on the Nile during the winter months;
it occurs on the Red Sea, at Aden, and on both sides of
the Persian Gulf it is reported to be abundant. This is
by far the largest of the "hooded" Gulls of the Old
World, and, in common with the rest of this group, is
not a rock-breeding bird.
