2284 PLOVERS, SANDPIPERS, SNIPE, J AC AN AS, GULLS 



outer web, while on the second, third, and fourth quills of the same series the black 

 forms a bar, followed by a broad white tip. 



With the somewhat misnamed common gull (Z,. canus} we come to the first of 

 a group of mostly large species, characterized by the pure white head and neck in 

 the summer plumage of the adult. Measuring eighteen inches in length, the adult 

 in summer has the head and neck pure white, the back gray, the primaries mostly 

 black, with white spots or tips, the beak yellow at the tip and greenish yellow at 

 the base, and the total number of flight feathers thirty-one. Breeding throughout 

 Northern Europe and Asia, the common gull is now only a winter visitor to Eng- 

 land, although it still nests in Ireland and Scotland. Its nests may be either scat- 

 tered singly along the shore, or 

 aggregated into larger or smaller 

 colonies. On the two sides of 

 North America this gull is sever- 

 ally represented by an allied spe- 

 cies. Another British species de- 

 manding notice is the herring gull 

 (L. argentatus} , which considerably 

 exceeds the last in size, measuring 

 upward of twenty-three inches in 

 length. In the adult summer 

 plumage the head is white, the 

 mantle pale pearl gray, the beak 

 wholly yellow, a ring round the 

 eye yellow, and the legs flesh 

 colored; there are thirty- four flight 

 feathers. The range of this species 

 includes Northern Europe, the is- 

 lands of the Atlantic, such as the 

 Azores, where it breeds, and 

 North America, while in winter it 

 visits the north of Africa. In 

 Southern Europe, as well as in Si- 

 beria, and various parts of America, 

 the herring gull is replaced by sev- 

 eral very closely-allied forms, mainly 



distinguished by the darker or lighter hue of the mantle, the pattern of the quill 

 feathers, and the color of the legs and of the ring round the eye. These gulls are 

 in the habit of following the shoals of the fish from which they take their name, 

 and may often be seen hovering above the fry,- preparatory to taking a plunge 

 among them in the water. Their chief food consists, however, of various marine 

 animals thrown up by the tide, although during the spring and after the rough 

 weather, they frequently wander far inland. Somewhat superior in size to the com- 

 mon gull (its length being about twenty-one inches), the lesser black-backed 

 gull (L.fuscus} in the adult summer plumage has the head white, the primaries 



LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL- 



