BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
79 
white feathers nearly round them; behind the eye is a spot 
of white, and in winter a crescent-shaped patch of black and 
grey in front of it, and another on the ear coverts. Head, 
crown, and neck all round on the upper part, dark brown, 
in winter white, with only a dusky patch behind the eye; 
the dark colour appears to be assumed again in the spring 
very rapidly; the feathers are not shed, but their colour is 
changed; in a bird kept in the garden of the Zoological 
Society, the metamorphosis was completed in five days; it 
began on the 11th. of March; nape, white; chin and throat, 
dark brown, in winter white; breast, white, with sometimes 
a roseate tint; back, pale blue grey. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest; they are 
upwards of three feet in extent; greater wing coverts, white; 
lesser wing coverts, pale blue grey; the first primary is black 
on the lower part of the outer web, the tip, and the outer 
margin of the inner web, the rest of it white, the three next 
are white on the shafts and the greater part of the outer 
webs, but margined gradually with black; the ends, except the 
extreme point, which is white, and half their inner webs black, 
passing into blackish grey near the bases of the feathers; the 
fourth is white on the outer web, grey on the inner, but 
edged with black; the fifth and sixth grey on both webs, the 
edge of the inner and the tip black; tertiaries, grey. Tail, 
white; .upper tad coverts, white. Legs and toes, deep vermilion 
red, all more dull in winter. 
The female resembles the male. 
The young are at first covered with down of white, grey, 
and brown, and very soon become fledged. 
In the young bird of the year, the bill is yellowish brown 
with a tinge of red, the tip darker; the head on the crown 
and back is yellowish brown with some white, in winter 
white streaked with grey, and before the eye is a crescent¬ 
shaped spot of deep brown, and another upon the ear coverts. 
Throat and breast, white, with a faint blush of pink; back 
on the upper part, bluish grey, on the lower white. Greater 
wing coverts, bluish grey; lesser wing coverts, bluish grey, 
mottled with yellowish brown; the primaries have their outer 
webs and tips dusky black, the inner ones white; secondaries, 
yellowish grey, edged with white; tertiaries, yellowish grey, 
edged with white. Tail, greyish white on the inner part with 
a broad bar of dusky black at the end, narrowed in winter. 
Legs and toes, yellowish brown; webs, yellowish brown. 
