LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, 467 



Barbary, Syria, Egypt, and the Red Sea. The Zoological 

 Society have received this species also from Trebizond. M. 

 Temminck says, that specimens of this bird from the Cape of 

 Good Hope are larger, while those from the eastern countries 

 named are smaller, than the average size of the birds obtained 

 here at home. 



The adult bird in summer has the bill yellow, the inferior 

 angle on the lower mandible red ; irides straw yellow ; head, 

 and the whole of the neck all round pure white ; back, wing- 

 coverts, and all the wing-feathers dark slate-grey, the tips 

 only of some of the longer scapulars and tertials being white, 

 and white tips to the shorter of the primaries ; upper tail- 

 coverts and tail-feathers white ; breast, belly, and all the 

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

 yellow. The whole length twenty-three inches ; from the 

 anterior joint of the wing to the end of the longest quill- 

 feather sixteen inches. 



In winter the head and neck are streaked with dusky 

 brown. 



A young male at one year old has the base of the bill pale 

 brown, the rest horny black ; irides dark brown ; head, sides 

 and back of the neck white, streaked longitudinally with 

 dusky brown ; back, and all the wing-coverts and the tertials 

 ash-brown, the feathers margined with white, but the shaft of 

 each feather deep brown, forming a dark line down the 

 centre ; primaries and secondaries blackish-brown, without 

 any white at the tips ; upper tail-coverts white, tail-feathers 

 blackish-brown, varied with some white ; the central feathers 

 having the most dark colour, the outside ones the most 

 white ; chin and neck in front white ; breast, belly, flanks, 

 and under tail-coverts white, mottled with dusky brown ; 

 legs and feet light brown. 



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