LARID. 585 
This pretty little Gull is smaller than the last- 
mentioned species, scarcely if anything exceeding a 
Blackbird in size. Like all the Gulls it goes through 
considerable variations of plumage, according to its 
age and the time of year. In the full summer 
plumage the bill is reddish brown ; irides very dark 
brown; the whole of the head and upper part of the 
neck all round is black, the neck below is white; the 
back, wing-coverts and wings uniform pale ash-grey ; 
the outer primaries darker grey, with white at the 
end and on the inner margin of the inner web; the 
upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers white, the tail in 
form square at the end; all the under surface of the 
body and under tail-coverts white; legs, toes and 
webs vermilion.* In winter the forehead and upper 
part of the neck in front and on the sides, pure 
white; occiput and nape of the neck streaked with 
greyish black on a white ground; a dusky spot 
under the eye and an elongated patch of dusky black 
falling downwards from the ear-coverts; all the other 
parts as insummer.t A young bird in my collection, 
killed on the 24th of November, has the bill black ; 
irides dark brown; all the fore part of the head, a 
broadish streak over the eye, chin, sides of the neck, 
throat, breast and all the under parts, white; there 1s 
a spot of black on the ear-coverts, and from thence 
to the eye, and immediately under the eye, the white 
ee a a 
*« Yarrell, vol. iil, p. 564. +: Td. ps. 569. 
