56 
sabine’s gull. 
the attempt sometimes fails, in far more cases successfully hides 
from the enemy the situation of the eggs or young. 
This bird lays its eggs on the bare earth. 
They are two or three in number, olive brown in their ground 
colour, numerously spotted with darker brown. They are of 
a regular shape, and not much pointed. 
The young are hatched in the latter end of July. 
Male; length, one foot and nearly an inch; bill, black tipped 
with yellow, the inside of the mouth bright vermilion; iris, 
dark brown surrounded by a rim of vermilion red: under the 
eye is a small white speck. Head, crown, neck on the back, 
sides, and front, dark slate-colour, below which is a collar of 
deep black, followed by the white o. the lower part of the 
neck and nap chin and throat, dark slate-colour; breast, 
white; back, pale bluish grey. 
The wings extend rather more than an nch beyond the end 
of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, bluish grey; the 
first five primaries are black, tipped and edged on the inner 
webs, nearly to, and sometimes quite to, the tips, with white, 
namely, the first and second black or white at the ends; the 
third, fourth, and fifth white; the sixth with a white shaft, 
having the web more or less black, but principally white, with 
sometimes a black spot near the end, the other primaries white, 
the shafts black; secondaries and tertiaries, white; greater and 
lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, white; the feathers 
twelve in number, the outer ones narrower than the centre 
ones, and about an inch longer, upper and under tail coverts, 
white. The legs, feathered nearly to the knee, and the toes, 
black; claws, black. 
The young, in the autumn the first year has the bill 
black at the base, the tip yellowish white; the space between 
the eye and the bill, excepting a narrow line o. greyish black 
around the lower part and in front of the eye, is white; fore¬ 
head, white crown, mottled with blackish grey; neck on the 
sides, white nape, darker blackish grey, shaded off into the 
other tint; chin and throat, white; breast above, pale grey 
white; back, blackish grey tinged with yellowish brown, the 
extremity of* every feather varying from greyish white to white 
as it approaches the tail. Greater and lesser wing coverts, 
blackish grey tinged with yellowish brown, broadly tipped with 
white the first five primaries have the shafts brownish black 
at the base, becoming gradually darker towards their ends, 
which in the first three are black tipped with dull white, but 
