HERRING GULL. 623 



In winter, even the adults have the head streaked with 

 dusky- grey ; but less so than in younger examples. 



The whole length is from twenty-two inches to twenty-four 

 and a half, depending upon age and sex; the wing from 

 sixteen inches and a half to seventeen and a quarter. The 

 male is often considerably larger than the female. 



In a young bird of the year, killed on the 4th of August, 

 the upper parts were of a mottled-brown tipped with buff; 

 tail whitish, broadly barred with dark brown margined with 

 white ; primaries sooty-brown. In the second year, the 

 upper parts are distinctly barred with brown on a whitish 

 ground ; the primaries show faint white tips, with a greyish 

 tint on the inside webs ; mantle greyish, but no entirely 

 grey feathers have yet begun to show ; head nearly white, 

 streaked with greyish-brown. In the third year a bird shot 

 on the 3rd November, had the feathers of the mantle of a pale 

 grey, slightly streaked down the shafts ; some of the tail- 

 coverts white ; a faint sub-apical white spot just showing in 

 the outer primary of the left wing only. In a bird of the 

 fourth year, also shot on the 3rd of November, the mantle 

 was grey ; the sub-apical patch larger ; and the primaries 

 from the fifth upwards were distinctly barred black and 

 white at the tips ; tail merely mottled with greyish-brown, 

 the band being broken up. At the autumn moult of the next 

 year the brown feathers are lost, and the bird breeds in the 

 following summer, when within a month or so of completing 

 the fifth year of its age. 



The nestling is covered with a down of a greyish-buff, 

 streaked and spotted with black on the upper parts, espe- 

 cially about the head and throat ; but the dimensions of 

 these marks Vary much with age. 



