8 RIVERSIDE LETTERS II 



letter (XXI.), in consequence of which the 

 river had risen in flood on the 22nd, that the 

 spring change in the birds' plumage had been 

 delayed. I am very familiar with the little 

 black-headed gull, as my brother Robert 

 had one for many years ; and I knew that the 

 change in plumage was a very sudden affair. 

 In a letter to Mr. Ruskin, March 3rd, 1884, 

 my brother says : " My small black-headed 

 gull ' Jack ' is still flourishing, and the time 

 is coming when I look for that singularly 

 sudden change in the plumage of his head 

 which took place last March." (Italics mine.) 

 The birds I saw were so exactly like in shape 

 and size to my brother's bird that I am still 

 convinced that they were of that species. 

 My critics are both ready enough with the 

 Latin name of the bird (with which I did not 

 care to bother you), but neither suggests what 

 other sort of small gulls these that we saw 

 could have been if they were not the black- 

 headed ones. After all, the fact of the matter 

 is, that when I wrote the correct name of the 



