44-2 LA RIDE. 



earthy olive, blotched and spotted with dull reddish-brown, 

 and some black, the markings rather more abundant towards 

 the larger end. As an article of food they are excellent. 

 These Gulls are extremely anxious about their eggs, as well 

 as their young, which are apt to wander away from the nest 

 while yet quite small. They are able to fly at the end of six 

 weeks, and soon after this are abandoned by their parents, 

 when the old and young birds keep apart in flocks until the 

 following spring, when, I think, the latter nearly attain the 

 plumage of their parents, though they are still smaller, and 

 have the terminal band on the tail."" 



This species has been taken on the coast of Spain, in the 

 Straits of Gibraltar, at Genoa, on various islands of the 

 Mediterranean Sea, at Sicily, and in the Grecian Archipelago. 

 It feeds on insects, small fishes, and minute Crustacea. 



The bill is red ; the irides very dark, almost black ; head 

 and upper part of neck all round dark lead-grey ; lower part 

 of the neck pure white ; back and wings greyish-blue, the 

 secondaries largely, and the primaries slightly, tipped with 

 white. Mr. Audubon mentions that the first primary is 

 black, with a tinge of grey on the inner web at the base ; 

 the second and third similar, with the grey more extended ; 

 on the fourth the grey is spread over two-thirds ; the fifth is 

 black only for an inch and a half; and on the sixth the black 

 is reduced to two spots near the end ; the other parts, and 

 the rest of the primaries, of the same colour as the back ; 

 rump, upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers white ; neck in 

 front, breast, and under surface of the body white, tinged 

 with pale red ; under tail-coverts and tail-feathers white ; 

 lejis and feet red. The whole leuiith seventeen inches ; from 

 the point of the wing to the end of the first quill-feather, 

 which is the longest, twelve inches and three-quarters. Fe- 

 males are rather smaller than males, and have the head of 

 slate-grey, rather than lead-grey. The winter-plumage of 



