LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 587 



the Zoological Society have received it from Oporto. It 

 inhabits the isles of the Adriatic. M. Savi includes it in 

 his Birds of Italy. It is found also in Barhary, Syria, 

 Egypt, and the Red Sea. The Zoological Society have 

 received this species also from Trebizond. M. Temminck 

 says, that specimens of this bird from the Cape of Good 

 Hope are larger, while those from the eastern countries 

 named are smaller, than the average size of the birds ob- 

 tained here at home. 



The adult bird in summer has the bill yellow, the in- 

 ferior angle on the lower mandible red ; irides straw yellow; 

 head, and the whole of the neck all round pure white ; 

 back, wing-coverts, and all the wing-feathers dark slate- 

 grey, the tips only of some of the longer scapulars and 

 tertials being white, and white tips to the shorter of the 

 primaries; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers white; breast, 

 belly, and all the under surface of the body and tail pure 

 white ; legs and feet yellow. The whole length twenty- 

 three inches ; from the anterior joint of the wing to the 

 end of the longest quill-feather sixteen inches. In winter 

 the head and neck are streaked with dusky brown. 



A young male at one year old has the base of the bill 

 pale brown, the rest horny black ; irides dark brown ; 

 head, sides and back of the neck white, streaked longitu- 

 dinally with dusky brown ; back, and all the wing-coverts 

 and the tertials ash-brown, the feathers margined with 

 white, but the shaft of each feather deep brown ; primaries 

 and secondaries blackish-brown, without any white at the 

 tips.; upper tail-coverts white, tail-feathers blackish-brown, 

 varied with some white ; the central feathers having the 

 most dark colour, the outside ones the most white ; chin, 

 neck, breast, belly, flanks, and under tail-coverts white, 

 mottled with dusky brown ; legs and feet light brown. 



