'206 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



tail-feathers are still much mottled with brown. 

 One Lesser Black-back, which I shot near the Vale 

 Chm'ch on the 17th of July, 1866, is perhaps 

 worthy of note as being in transition, and perhaps 

 a rather abnormal state of change considering the 

 time of year at which it was shot ; it was in a full 

 state of moult ; the new feathers on the head, neck, 

 tail-coverts, and under parts are white ; the tail 

 also is white, except four old feathers, two on each 

 side not yet moulted, which are much mottled 

 with brown. The primary quills had not been 

 moulted, and are quite those of the immature 

 bird, with no white tip whatever. All the new 

 feathers of the back and wing-coverts are the 

 dark slate-grey of the adult, but the old worn 

 feathers are the brownish feathers of the young 

 bird; these feathers are much worn and faded, 

 being a paler brown than is usual in young birds. 

 The legs and bill are also quite as much in a state 

 of change as the rest of the bird. Before finishing 

 this notice of the Lesser Black-back I think it is 

 worth while to notice that it selects quite a different 

 sort of breeding-place to the Herring Gull ; the 

 nests are never placed on ledges on the steep 

 precipitous face of the cliffs, but amongst the 

 bracken and the flat rocks, as at Burhou, the only 

 rather steep rock I have seen any nests on was at 

 the Amfrocques, but there they were on the flattish 

 top of the rock, and not on ledges on the side. 



