62 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



During winter the Gull loses the black neck-ring and much of its roseate hue. 



The nest, the eggs and the chicks of this bird are quite unknown. The birds 

 obtained by Nansen, and described by him in the extract quoted above, were 

 immature. A young bird has been described by Saunders in the XXV Volume 

 of the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," as being similar to the 

 immature but with the crown distinctly pearl-grey, with sometimes a dark feather 

 or two indicative of a hood, and also an approach to a greyish collar ; more black 

 about the orbits, and a strongly marked patch over the ears ; more blackish on 

 the wing-coverts ; rump barred with brown ; tail feathers with blackish-brown tips 

 to all except the outer pair. " This dark band," he continues, " decreases rapidly 

 with advancing age in the feather, and by the following spring it is almost con- 

 fined to the two central pairs of rectrices." 



Ga'tke describes a specimen, shot on Heligoland, as having, in the fresh state, 

 " the head, neck and all the lower parts, as well as the tail, tinged with a beautiful 

 rosy red, this colour being particularly rich on the breast, and also penetrating 

 the soft bluish-grey colour of the feathers of the back, especially on the shoulders, 

 quite similar to what one sees in the same parts in old males of the Northern 

 Bullfinch fPyrrkula majorj from the East." 



Specimens of this Gull are not at all common in collections. The British 

 Museum can show about half-a-dozen ; there is one in the Leeds Museum ; one 

 in the Edinburgh University collection, and one in the Liverpool Museum. The 

 latter, which has been before us in drawing up the above description, and has 

 been figured by Dresser in his " Birds of Europe," was obtained in 69 30' N. 

 latitude, at Alagnak, in Melville Peninsula, on June 23rd, 1823. The Edinburgh 

 specimen was taken on the 2yth of the same month and year, and in the same 

 Peninsula. 



