MASKED GULL. 
G7 
In Wales, T. C. Eyton, Esq., of Eyton, has recorded one 
shot near Bangor. 
In the Orkneys two individuals of this species were taken 
at Westray; another in 1831. In Shetland one in 1831. 
They have been known to breed in Orkney. 
These birds appear to be easily kept in confinement. 
In their flight they exhibit the ‘esprit de corps’ of the rest 
of their family, and wing their way with characteristic ease 
and grace. 
The eggs are described as of a greyish green colour with 
dark spots. 
Male; weight, eight ounces and a quarter; length, one foot 
two to one foot three inches; bill, brownish red. The dark 
colour, that is to say, the blackish red brown on the head, 
the lower part the darkest, is in front only, somewhat in the 
way of a mask, and hence the name of the bird. In winter 
the dark colour is lost, all but a few dusky grey lines and 
a small dusky black patch under, and another behind the eye. 
Crown, dark-coloured in front, the hind part white, as is the 
neck on the back, and the nape. Chin, blackish brown; 
throat, blackish brown, mixing with the white of the breast; 
back, pale bluish grey. The wings expand to the width of 
two feet eleven inches or three feet; greater and lesser wing 
coverts, bluish grey; the first primary is white tipped with 
black, a black line on the middle of the outer web, and a 
greyish black border along the margin of the inner web, being 
broadest at the base, the second and third without the black 
line on the outer web; the fourth and fifth have a greater 
portion of greyish black on the inner web, and all of them 
except the first, with their extreme tips white, the shafts 
white adjoining the white colour. Tertiaries, pale bluish grey’, 
passing into white on the tips; greater and lesser under wing 
coverts, greyish white. Tail, white; under tail coverts, white. 
Legs and toes, reddish brown. 
