73° 



THE HERRING GULL. 



\\\' know, of course, lliat there are ele\en kinds of yulls in Washington, 

 besides their blood relati\es, the jaegers and Terns, of wliicli tiiere are two 

 and four species, respectively. The captain might have been sooner pardoned 

 if be had answered "Forty!": for when to the subtle but sliifting variety of 

 adult marking is added the intenuinable shading n\ childbodd and vouth, 

 you have a scene of confusion worse confounded, in which not even the 

 expert is at home. But let us see if a little light is possible; The dingy, 

 mottled. i>r Ijlackish gulls are (with une excei)tiiin) young birds of the first 



Taken in Seattle. 



From a Photograph, Copyright, 1908, by il'. L. Dtni'son, 

 A GULL MliL-ANCi:. 



and second years. Save in the case of ITeermann's Gull (L. Iiccniiaiiui ) all 

 adult gulls are chiefly white, with the upper surfaces of back and wings — 

 the mantle — chiefly blue-gray (pearly gra\', ashy gray, or ])lumbeous) ; while, 

 also with one exception, the ti])s of the wings, or jirimaries, are black, variously 

 spotted and blotclied (or not ) with white. .Ml birds which show mixed char- 

 acters, such as black tail and wing-(|uills with mottled plumage, etc.. are 

 juveniles of the second or third \-ear. 



Tlie most persistent juxcnile characteristic in the case of the common 



