SABINE S GULL. 



425 



inch or more beyond the longest feather of the tail. The 

 legs, feet, and claws black ; the thigh feathered to within 

 three-eighths of an inch of the knee : the tail with its upper 

 and under coverts white ; the tail-feathers twelve, the outer 

 narrower than the centre ones ; the outer tail-feathers about 

 one inch longer than those in the middle. It is probable 

 that in its immature and winter state it resembles other black- 

 headed Gulls, in being divested of the dark colour of its 

 head. The whole length thirteen inches ; wing, from the 

 wrist ten inches and three-quarters. 



Mr. Thompson's description of the autumnal plumage of 

 the young bird of the first year, is, " the forehead, space im- 

 mediately above the eye, and between it and the bill, (with 

 the exception of the narrow line of greyish-black closely en- 

 circling the front and lower part of the eye,) upper part of 

 the throat, and sides of the neck, are white ; crown, nape, 

 and back of the neck, blackish-grey ; back, scapulars, greater 

 and lesser wing-coverts, blackish-grey, tinged with yellowish- 

 brown, the extremity of every feather varying from greyish- 

 white to white, as it approaches the tail ; under part of the 

 throat, and upper part of the breast, pale ash-colour ; lower 

 breast, and all the under plumage, white ; shafts of the first 

 six primaries brownish-black at base, becoming gradually 

 darker towards the extremity, where they are black in the 

 first three, but in the fourth, fifth, and sixth assimilate in 

 colour to the feather at that part, which is white ; the entire 

 of the outer webs of the first five black ; the inner webs with 

 a broad edging of white, to within from one to two inches of 

 the end, which part is black in the first three, but tipped with 

 white in the fourth and fifth ; in the sixth the inner web is 

 white, the outer black, excepting for three or four lines from 

 the tip, where it is white, and again at about an inch from 

 the end where a white spot of an oval form appears. Fea- 

 thers of the tail white, with black tips." 



