f the large number of rarities on the British and Irish list, a select few have, over the years, achieved near-mythical status: Houbara Bustard Chlamydotis undulata, Eskimo Curlew Nummius borealis, Pallas's Sandgrouse Sywhaptes paradoxus and White-winged Lark Melanocorypha leucoptera, to name but a few. Despite the huge upsurge in birdwatching in recent years, they have remained extremely infrequent and unlikely visitors to these shores. Their mystique is compounded by the fact that they appear to represent relics from a misty, bygone era: the Victorian age, when the rarity-hunter was the upperclass country gentleman, trudging the marshes of Sussex or Kent armed, not with binoculars, but with a gun. Another species which clearly falls among the elite is the Great Blackheaded Gull Lams khthyaetus. The only two modern claims--Calf of Man, Isle of Man, on 21st May 1966, and Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, during 31st March to 14th April 1967--have both been rejected by the British Birds Rarities Committee [Brit. Birds 78: 553; 74: 473). The latter proved to be a1. 2. 3. 1. 5. Off" Exmouth, Devon, end oI'Mav or early J u n e 1859 Telscombe Cliffs, East Sussex, 4th January 1910 Bournemouth. Dorset (formerly Hampshire), end of November to early December 1924 Cromer, Norfolk, 2nd-9th March 1932 Hove, West Sussex, 9th August 1932In the light of the BBRC decisions, the BOURC reviewed these records, and the results were both interesting and rewarding. When judging old records, one obviously has to make allowances for the lack of modern-day precision in