592 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
to most of the quills partially margined with black. 
Adult in summer as in winter, but with a dark soot- 
brown hood; the feet and bill arterial blood-red; 
eyes encircled with white; the under parts often 
pale or very rich rose-colour. This plumage seems 
to be completed about May, but it must occasionally 
be so rather earlier, as one in my collection, killed 
at Exmouth in the middle of March, has the hood 
nearly complete, only a few white feathers being 
interspersed. 
The eggs are said to vary more than those of any 
other Gull, the ground colour of some being a light 
blue or yellow, and of others green, or red, or brown. 
One curious variety is mentioned in the ‘ Zoologist’ 
for 1867 (Second Series, p. 832), namely, white all 
over, with the exception of a black cap on the large 
end, covering about one-sixth of the shell. 
Kirriwakr, Larus tridactylus. ‘This pretty little 
Gull is by no means uncommon throughout our 
coast, and although generally speaking a very sea- 
faring Gull (not frequenting harbours and tidal rivers 
so much as some of the other Gulls), it does occa- 
sionally make expeditions inland, generally under 
stress of weather. I have one very perfect adult 
specimen, which was picked up in an exhausted state 
and almost dead, on Crowcombe Heathfield, during 
some rough weather in March, and specimens have 
been picked up still further inland, for I see notes in 
the ‘ Zoologist’ about specimens having been found 
