5 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



tliej- are dull brownish-olive, blotched with reddish-brown, or spotted with indistinct 

 dull brown, more abundant in some examples at the larger end, though as a rule 

 pretty evenly distributed over the egg. 



The young, which are hatched towards the end of July, are covered with 

 down, reddish-yellow on the upper side, greyish-white beneath, and spotted all 

 over with black. 



In about a month after leaving the egg, the young birds are fully fledged, 

 and have, according to Mr. Saunders, the forehead dull white ; the head grey, 

 mottled with buff; feathers of the upper parts ash-grey, with the margins bufftsh 

 at first and becoming greyer as the bird grows older ; tail feathers broadly tipped 

 with black ; under parts chiefly white ; on the sides of the neck an ash-brown 

 band, which is seldom complete and very variable in extent ; bill horn-brown , 

 legs and toes flesh colour to brownish. 



As is the rule among the Larina, young Gulls do not reach maturity so 

 soon as young Terns, but take several years to attain to their fully adult plumage. 

 The slate-grey and the ashy colour on various parts of the body, which are marks 

 of the young bird, become less year by year, till they finally disappear. 



The adult in winter, as described by Mr. Saunders, is similar to the adult in 

 breeding dress, but the head is white, with grey streaks, which coalesce on the 

 nape and hind neck, producing a greyish-black appearance ; the quills are worn 

 and faded in colour, and their tips abruptly broken off, as if cut artificially , the 

 bill is duller in colour and the tarsi brown. " By the beginning of April, ' he 

 adds, " the new primaries, with broad white tips, are fully developed, and the 

 head is plentifully sprinkled with slate-grey." 



Sabine's Gull differs from all other Gulls, except the Little Gull, in having 

 a forked instead of a square tail. In this character it approaches the Terns ; as it 

 does also in manner of flight.* It rarely plunges into the water, as Gulls are in 

 the habit of doing, but hovers gracefully close over the water to pick up a morsel, 

 or alights for an instant in the water and rises again on the wing so lightly that 

 scarcely a ripple is made on the surface, as Mr. E. W. Nelson has related from 

 observations made by him on this species in Alaska. In other habits, as described 

 by the bird's discoverer, Captain (afterwards Sir Edward) Sabine, Xema sabinii 

 resembles a Tern. " They flew," he says, " with impetuosity towards persons 

 approaching their nests and young, and when one bird of a pair was killed, its 

 mate, though frequently fired at, continued on wing close to the spot where it lay. 



Mr. Abel Chapman, as long ago as 1886. pointed out that the tail of the Little Gull, in immature 

 plumage, "is distinctly forked, shewing an affinity with the Terns," (Zool. 1886, p. 457). We have repeatedly 

 verified this observation. H.A.M. 



