BONAPAETE'S GULL
LARUS PHILADELPHIA (Orel).
Sterna Philadelphia, Orel, in Guthrie's Geogr. 2nd Amer. ed.
ii. p. 319 (1815).
Gavia bonapartii, Macg. v. p. G10.
Larus Philadelphia, Yarr. ed. 4, iii. p. 5 8 1 ; Dresser, viii.
p. 35G.
This American Gull is a scarce and accidental straggler
to our Islands. I find that the editor of the 4th ed. of
' Yarrell,' in his article upon this species, published in
March 1884, only records five British occurrences as
positively authenticated; of these the earliest was at
Belfast on the 1st of February, 1848, the next in
Scotland about the end of April 1850; these are followed
by three occurrences in England, viz. one in
Falmouth Harbour on the 4th of January, 1S65, another
at Penryn on the 10th of the same month, and the last
at St. Leonards early in November 1S70. Two other
supposed occurrences in Ireland are alluded to in the
article to which I have referred, but the first of these
was, to my personal knowledge, a case of mistaken
identity.
My readers will, I trust, excuse me from hunting up