LITTLE MEW. 615 



Mr. Selby has figured and described a specimen in its first 

 plumage, killed on the Firth of Clyde, and preserved in the 

 Museum of the University of Edinburgh, where there is also 

 another said to have been shot on the Solway. Mr. Thomp- 

 son mentions an adult specimen in the Museum of the Dublin 

 Natural History Society, shot on the Shannon in May, 1840. 

 A second adult individual, a male, shot in the estuary about 

 three miles distant from Belfast, in December, 1847, has been 

 briefly described by the same naturalist, who also makes 

 mention of three other birds of this species, one of them, an 

 adult, seen on Strangford Lough in January 1848, one wounded 

 there in February, 1849, the third, in adult plumage too, shot 

 in Belfast Bay in November, 1848. 



Young. — " Forehead, region of the eyes, all the loAver 

 parts and two-thirds of the tail white ; top of the head and 

 occiput blackish-grey ; nape and back brownish-grey ; small 

 wing-coverts whitish, spotted with grey and blackish ; the 

 middle coverts blackish-grey, bordered with pale brown ; the 

 larger whitish externally and at the end ; the first four quills 

 black on the outer webs and at the end, but white on the 

 inner webs ; the next three grey externally, and with the 

 point white ; tail a little forked, terminated by a broad black 

 band, which is not so large on the outermost feather ; bill 

 blackish-brown, feet livid flesh-colour." 



Progress toward Maturity. — A young bird killed in 

 the middle of November, is thus described by Mr. Yarrell : — 

 " Bill black, irides very dark brown ; forehead and lore white ; 

 top of the head, occiput, and ear-coverts, greyish-black ; nape 

 of the neck white, forming a collar by uniting with the white 

 of the front ; below the nape a broader black band extending 

 towards, but not reaching, the wings ; back, scapulars, and 

 tertials pale pearl-grey, with a few black feathers appearing 

 through ; wing primaries and secondaries greyish - black, 

 tipped with white, nearly the whole of the inner webs white ; 

 greater wing-coverts pearl-gi-ey ; smaller coverts black, edged 

 with grey ; upper tail-coverts white ; upper surface of tail- 

 feathers white, with a broad terminal band of black, which is 



