424 LARIDAG 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial.—Head, neck, breast, ab- 
domen, and tail, white; back and wings, dark ‘french’ grey 
or lavender colour, deeper in shade than the same regions 
of several other species of Gulls; secondaries, broadly tipped 
with white; two outer pairs of primaries, chiefly dull 
black, with ervey basal portions, and with large white ‘ eyes’ 
near the tips; rest of primaries, chiefly pale grey, barred 
below with black, and all except the first broadly tipped 
with white. 
Adult female nuptial.—Similar in plumage to the male. 
Adult winter, male and female.— Differs from the nuptial 
plumage in that the head and upper neck are streaked and 
spotted with greyish-brown.' 
Immature, male and female.—Before August the upper 
parts of the immature birds are dusky-brown, with dull buff 
edges to the feathers; throat, breast, and abdomen, impure 
white, with brownish feathers interspersed ; tail, dull white, 
broadly banded subterminally with brown ; upper tail-coverts, 
white, thinly interspersed with brown; primaries, brown.? 
The lavender-coloured feathers of the back appear early in 
the first autumn, but the wing-coverts retain their immature 
brownish coloration and the tail is banded until the next 
autumn moult. The pure white head is apparently not 
assumed until all signs of immature plumage have dis- 
appeared. 
Break. Green, tipped with yellow. 
FreET. Yellowish-green. 
IrR1DES. Blackish-brown. 
AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 
TOTAL LENGTH ... She cee, aio. a 
WING ae ce exh ee 
BEAK oe ie 2h, ISO Ames 
TTARSO-METATARSUS Jo, EZ 
iexes 2°25 % leben 
1T have seen and examined in the flesh many Common Gulls in full 
winter-plumage as early as August 6th. 
* Birds in this plumage are far from common along our coasts, except 
near their breeding-colonies. 
