LARUS.] AVES NATATORES. 277 



mities, all terminated by a large white spot; scapulars and secondaries 

 edged and tipped with white : forehead, throat, and all the other under 

 parts, as well as the tail, pure white : bill ochre-yellow ; the angle of the 

 lower mandible orange-red : orbits orange : irides pale yellow : legs livid 

 flesh-colour. (Summer plumage.) The whole head and neck pure white, 

 without any brown streaks: the rest as in winter. (Young of the year.) 

 Head, neck, and all the under parts, ash-gray, spotted and variegated 

 with light brown : upper parts brown and ash-colour, all the feathers 

 edged with reddish : quills dusky brown, without any white at the tips : 

 tail whitish at the base, becoming browner towards the extremity, the 

 tips of the feathers reddish yellow : bill grayish black : irides and orbits 

 brown: legs livid brown. In the second year, the colours are similar, 

 but somewhat paler. After the second autumnal moult, the bluish ash 

 begins to appear upon the back mottled with brown, and the irides get 

 lighter, inclining to yellow. The following spring, the colour of the bill 

 changes ; the bluish ash extends further and assumes a purer tint ; and 

 the bar on the tail gradually disappears. At the age of three years, or 

 after the third autumnal moult, the plumage is matured. (Egg.) Light 

 olive-brown, spotted with two shades of dark brown : long. diam. two 

 inches six lines ; trans, diam. one inch nine lines. 



Common on all parts of the coast throughout the year. In the young 

 or immature state, occasionally observed inland in the vicinity of rivers 

 and fresh-water lakes. Breeds on rocky cliffs, constructing a nest of 

 long dry grass. Eggs two or three in number. Feeds on fish, worms, 

 and marine rejectamenta. Obs. The name of Wagel Gull has been 

 applied indiscriminately to the young of this, and the two following 

 species. 



299. L. fuscus, Linn. (Lesser Black-backed Gull.) 

 Bill and legs yellow : tarsus two inches three lines : wings 

 reaching two inches beyond the tail : shafts of the primaries 

 black : mantle (in the adult) grayish black. 



L. fuscus, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. u. p. 767. Lesser Black-backed 

 Gull, Mont. Orn. Diet. $ Supp. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. u. p. 205. 

 Selb. Illust. vol. ii. p. 509. pi. 95. 



DIMENS. Entire length twenty-four inches. MONT. 



DESCRIPT. (Adult in wnter.) Crown, region of the eyes, occiput, 

 nape and sides of the neck, white, with longitudinal streaks of pale brown 

 on the shafts of the feathers : upper part of the back, scapulars and 

 wing-coverts, deep blackish gray: primaries black, deepening in tint 

 towards their extremities ; the first two with an oval white spot near their 

 tips; the rest finely tipped with white; secondaries, and some of the 

 longer scapulars, likewise tipped with white : forehead, throat, and all 

 the under parts, lower part of the back, rump and tail, pure white : 

 bill ochre-yellow ; the angle of the lower mandible orange-red : irides 

 gamboge-yellow : orbits bright red : legs yellow. (Summer plumage.) 

 The whole head and neck pure white, without any brown streaks : the 

 rest as in winter. (Young of the year.) Scarcely to be distinguished 

 from that of the last species, excepting by the shorter tarsus and some- 

 what longer wings : plumage extremely similar : throat, and front of the 

 neck, whitish, with longitudinal streaks of pale brown ; rest of the under 

 parts grayish white, almost entirely covered with large deep brown spots : 

 upper plumage dusky brown, all the feathers edged with a narrow yel- 



