102 IIEEKING GULL. 



coverts, white; under tail coverts, white; legs and toes, palo 

 yellowish grey, with a tinge of light red. 



The autumnal moult begins about the middle of August, 

 and a partial spring moult about the middle of February, 

 when the mottled feathers of winter are discharged, and the 

 pure white of summer restored. 



The female is less in size than the male, her measurement 

 being about one foot ten inches or over, to one foot eleven 

 inches. 



The young are at first mottled with brown and dull white; 

 the quills dusky, with no white at the tips, the tail with 

 a dusky bar at the end, the bill horn-colour, the iris dusky, 

 and the legs dark. Subsequently in the first year the bill 

 is blackish grey at the tip, the remainder pale yellowish red ; 

 iris, dark ; head, crown, neck, and nape, greyish white, streaked 

 and mottled with pale brown; chin, nearly white; throat and 

 breast, greyish white, streaked and marbled with pale yellowish 

 brown. Back, a mixture of different shades of grey and pale 

 yellowish brown, the feathers being edged with pale rufous; 

 primaries, greyish black. Tail, marked at its base with white 

 and brown, more white in the second year, the rest brown, 

 but the tip a pale rufous yellow. Legs and toes, pale yel- 

 lowish red. 



They do not arrive at maturity till the third year; the 

 following account of their change of plumage is from Montagu; 

 'In the second year the colours continue the same, but 

 rather lighter; in the autumnal moulting the back- becomes 

 ash-colour, the iris gets lighter, inclining to yellow, the bill 

 the same. In the next change we find the wing coverts still 

 mottled with brown, the head and neck streaked with dusky 

 brown, the bar in the tail broken by numerous white undu- 

 lated streaks running down the webs; iris and bill yellowish.' 



