590 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
seldom with dark at the end. Upper coverts of 
secondaries deep brown, with pale tips; the lower 
coverts of secondaries chiefly blue-grey; some are 
marked with brown. Under surface :— Yellowish 
white. Bill grey, flesh at the base, dark at the tip. 
Feet earthy flesh.” This plumage changes from 
August to October, partly by change of colour in the 
feathers and partly by moult; ‘the back, shoulders 
and scapulars are mixed with new blue-grey feathers, 
and the head with white; the band at base of the 
neck is also falling off.’ A bird in my collection, 
killed in Curry Marsh about the middle of January, 
is exactly in this state of plumage, not even then 
having progressed further in its winter change: this 
backwardness in changing plumage Mr. Knox attri- 
butes to such birds being a late brood, the previous 
egos having been taken, and very likely sent to Lon- 
don and sold for Golden Plover’s eggs, and this may 
probably account for it to a great extent, but I think 
some birds are slower than others in assuming their 
various plumages: on this I shall have a little more 
to say when we arrive at the Herring Gull, which I 
have had more opportunity of watching. ‘The next 
plumage I shall quote is the adult in winter, at 
which state of plumage the bird appears to arrive 
about the November of its third year:—‘ Head, 
neck, rump and tail-coverts, tail, bastard wing and 
end primary coverts pure white, as are all the under 
parts and the margin of the wing; the spot before 
the eye and the ear-spot black. Back, shoulders, 
