38G BIRDS or AUSTRALIA. 



lar habit, and in its less laborious flight, it differs consider- 

 ably from its prototype, the Lar us marinvs of Europe, while 

 in most other parts of its economy it as closely assimilates to 

 it. It traverses the line of coast in search of food, which con- 

 sists of any stranded carrion or floating animal substance, to 

 which living fish, crabs, mollusks, and even small quadrupeds 

 are added whenever opportunities occur. 



This fine Gull breeds on most of the low islands round 

 Tasmania ; the eggs, which are generally three in number, 

 being usually placed on the bare ledges of rock, although not 

 unfrequently on the shore of the projecting points of small 

 islands. They are of a clear olive, marked all over with 

 blotches of blackish and umber brown, some of the markings 

 appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell ; they are two 

 inches and five-eighths long by one inch and seven-eighths in 

 breadth. 



When fully adult, the sexes can only be distinguished by 

 the smaller size of the female ; the young, on the contrary, 

 for at least two years, differ very considerably like the youthful 

 birds of the other species of the genus ; the mottled brown 

 of this state, however, may frequently be seen gradually 

 changing to the colouring of the adult, as may also the 

 hues of the eye, bill, and legs, which gradually change with 

 the plumage. 



Head, neck, upper part of the back, all the under surface, 

 upper and under tail-coverts white ; back and wings dark slaty 

 black, the secondaries largely tipped with white ; primaries 

 black, the innermost slightly tipped with white ; tail white, the 

 inner web of the outer feather and both webs of the remain- 

 der crossed near the tip with a broad band of black ; irides 

 pearl-white ; legs yellow ; claws black ; eyelash yellow ; bill 

 orange stained with blood-red at the tip, in the midst of which 

 in some specimens are a few blotches of black. 



The young have the general plumage brown, with lighter 

 margins to the feathers, giving them a mottled appearance ; 



