COMMON GULL. 455 



back and all the wing-coverts pearl-grey, secondaries and ter- 

 tials the same, but broadly edged and tipped with white ; 

 primaries black on the outer web, with a small portion of 

 pearl-grey at the base of the inner web, the proportion of 

 grey increasing on each primary in succession, the first and 

 second primary with a patch of white on both webs near the 

 end, but the extreme tips of both are black, the third, fourth, 

 fifth, and sixth, have white tips, but the first set of primary 

 quill-feathers which the young bird carries for the first fifteen 

 months, have no white at the tips. Few birds moult their 

 first set of quill-feathers in their first autumn. Tail-coverts 

 and tail-feathers pure white ; chin, neck in front, breast, and 

 all the under surface of the body and tail pure white ; legs 

 and feet dark greenish-ash. The whole length of an old male 

 eighteen inches and a half ; of the wing from the point four- 

 teen inches and a half. The length of an old female about 

 one inch less, and of the wing half an inch less. 



In the winter the whole head and the sides of the neck are 

 streaked and spotted with dusky brown and ash-brown. 



A young bird in its first autumn has the basal portion of 

 the bill yellowish-brown, the part anterior to the nostrils 

 nearly black ; irides dusky ; head, sides of the neck, the ear- 

 coverts and occiput dull white, mottled with greyish-brown ; 

 the back, wing-coverts, secondaries and tertials brownish-ash, 

 the feathers edged with paler brown ; a few bluish-grey fea- 

 thers on the centre and sides of the back ; the primaries 

 nearly black, both as to the shafts and greater part of the 

 webs, all but the first being tipped with brown ; upper tail- 

 coverts dull white ; tail-feathers white, the outer half black, 

 except the outer feather on each side, which has the outer 

 web white ; chin and throat white ; neck in front, the breast, 

 and all the under surface of the body, mottled with light ash- 

 brown, on a ground of white ; legs and feet pale yellowish- 

 brown, the claws black. 



