GREAT BLACK-JACKED GULL. 
07 
dry grass, sea-weeds, and sticks. Many resort to the same 
place. The nest is of large size. Both male and female 
assist in its construction. 
The eggs are three in number. They are considered very 
good to eat, and great numbers are taken for the purpose, 
the first and second clutch being removed, and the bird then 
laying a third time. Their colour is yellowish brown, with 
a tinge of green, a little spotted with bluish grey and dark 
brown. 
Male; weight, nearly five pounds; length, two feet six 
inches or over. The bill, which is large and very strong, is 
pale yellow, the lower angle of the under mandible orange 
red, with a dusky black spot in the middle on each side; the 
tooth of the upper bill dusky in winter. Iris, pale yellow; 
the eyelids bright red; there is a dark mark before the eye 
in winter. Head, crown, neck, and nape, white; in winter 
the former streaked with a little grey; chin, throat, and breast, 
white; back, dark leaden grey. 
The wings reach in extent to the width of five feet nine 
inches; greater and lesser wing coverts, leaden grey; primaries, 
nearly black, the first and second ending with a triangular¬ 
shaped white patch, longest in the former, the second with 
a black spot in the white near the tip, the third with a short 
white tip, the fourth with a short white tip, succeeded by , 
black, and this followed by a narrow clouded bar of greyish 
white, the others tipped with white, the inner webs being 
leaden grey; secondaries, leaden grey, ending in white, forming 
a bar across the wing; tertiaries, leaden grey, also ending in 
white; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, 
white; upper tail coverts, white; under tail coverts, white. 
Legs and toes, pale yellowish red. 
Female; length, two feet three or four inches. 
In the young the bill is black; iris, dark blue; head, crown, 
neck, and nape, dull white, mixed with greyish brown; chin, 
throat, and breast, also dull white, but paler in the markings. 
Back, greyish brown, the feathers dark in the middle, the 
edges greyish white. Greater and lesser wing coverts, mottled 
and spotted with pale greyish brown and greyish white; 
primaries, black, greater and lesser under wing coverts, dull 
greyish white, with some pale brown marks. The tail has 
the middle feathers black, tipped with white, the side feathers 
mixed with black and white. Legs and toes, dull greyish 
white, with a red tint. 
VOL. vm. 
H 
