LARID. 589 
‘ Zoologist’ for 1866 (Second Series, p. 364), says he 
has actually taken from its throat, at different times, 
“fish, grain, bread, candle-grease, pieces of oily 
cotton thrown from steamers, meat, vegetables, in- 
sects (particularly moths, dragonflies and water Cole- 
optera), worms, crustaceans, mollusks, Radiata, &c.” 
He also adds that he has seen them feeding on and 
taking the ghost moth at night on the wing. 
In the paper of Mr. Knox’s, from which I have 
just quoted, he traces this Gull most accurately 
through all its changes of plumage, from the young 
bird in its down to the perfect plumage of the adult, 
both in summer and winter. The whole series of the 
various plumages would be much too long to quote 
here, but I shall select three stages, which I think 
will enable my readers to identify the bird at any 
period of its life. The first plumage after the down 
is as follows :—‘‘ Upper surface :—Head, top of head 
and nape from gape under the eyes to the ear-spot 
brown, clearly indicating the future hood; the fore- 
head and a circle round the eyes whitish. The neck 
is white, except at its junction with the body, where 
it is banded by a deep band of dull brown, with 
fainter edges, not encroaching on the breast, but run- 
ning down and forming an angle before the wings. 
The back, shoulders and scapulars deep brown, the 
edges wood-brown or tawny. Rump and tail-coverts 
white. Tail white, deeply banded at the end with 
black-brown; tips pale; first feather pure white, 
3 E 
