THE GULL. 168 



third year that the young birds acquire the same colour m 

 the old. 



The Black and White Gull is by far the largest of all the 

 Gull kind, as it generally weighs upwards of four pounds, 

 and is twenty-five or twenty-six inches from the point of 

 the bill to the end of the tail ; and from the tip of each 

 wing, when extended, five feet and several inches. The bill 

 appears compressed sideways, being more than three inches 

 loEg, and hooked towards the end, like the rest of this 

 kind, of a sort of orange colour ; the nostrils are of an 

 oblong form ; the mouth is wide, with a long tongue and 

 very open gullet. The irides of the eyes are of a very 

 delightful red. The wings and the middle of the back aro 

 black, only the tips of the covert and quill-feathers are 

 white. The head, breast, tail, and other parts of the body 

 are likewise white. The tail is near six inches long, the 

 lega and feet are flesh-coloured, and the claws black. There 

 are about twenty varieties of this tribe, which are all 

 distinguished by an angular knob on the chap. 



Gulls are found in great plenty in every place ; but it ia 

 chiefly round our rockiest shores, that they are seen in the 

 greatest abundance ; it is there that the Gull breeds and 

 brings up its young ; it is there that millions of them- are 

 heard screaming with discordant notes for months together. 



These birds, like all others of the rapacious kind, lay bnt 

 few eggs ; and hence, in oiany places, their number is dail^ 

 Been to diminish. The lessening of so many rapaoioui 



