70 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



they were all laid by the same bird." Although some of the 

 eggs of L. fnscus look like small reproductions of eggs of 

 L. marinus, the general tone of the colour in the Lesser Black- 

 backed Gull is decidedly darker, and varies from clay-brown 

 or olive-brown to dark chocolate. The black overlying spots 

 run somewhat into blotches, which are often congregated at 

 the larger end of the egg. Axis, 2 '6-2 '85 inches; diam., 

 1-8-1-95. 



VIII. THE HERRING-GULL. LARUS ARGENTATUS. 



Larus argentatus, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 600 (1788, ex Briinn.); 

 Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 544 (1852); Dresser, B. Etir. viii. 

 P- 339, pl- 602, fig. 2 (1873) ; B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 188 

 (1883) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 613 (1884); 

 Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 316 (1885); Saunders, Man. 

 Brit. B. p. 655 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxiii. 

 (1893); Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 260 (1896). 



Adult Male. General colour above delicate pearly-grey ; wing- 

 coverts like the back, the secondaries broadly tipped with white, 

 like the scapulars, forming a conspicuous bar across the wing ; 

 bastard-wing pearly-grey, the outer feathers white ; primary- 

 coverts and primaries darker grey ; first primary blackish, with 

 a grey wedge towards the base of the inner web, the tips white, 

 preceded by a narrow black bar (often absent), which is again 

 preceded by a broad band of white; the second primary 

 with a spot of white at a little distance from the end of 

 the inner web, both these quills grey at the basal portion of 

 the inner web, this grey gradually increasing in extent until the 

 black becomes but a band near the end of the inner primaries, 

 and finally disappears on the innermost ones; upper tail-coverts 

 and tail pure white, as well as the head and neck all round 

 and the entire under surface of the body. Total length, 22*5 

 inches; oilmen, 2*2; wings, 16*5; tail, 6'6 ; tarsus, 2*5. 



The white markings on the first two primaries vary consider- 

 ably. Sometimes the black sub- terminal black band is entirely 

 absent, and the whole tip is white for more than two inches, in 

 other individuals the white spot near the end of the inner web 

 of the second primary is totally absent. 



