BIRT>S OF G\TERNSFA T . 201 



very old birds from those which, though adult, have 

 only recently assumed the breeding-plumage. I 

 know Mr. Howard Saunders is of this opinion, 

 certainly as far as Herring Gulls are concerned. 

 Besides the live ones, two skins I have, both of 

 adult birds, as far as breeding-plumage only is 

 concerned, are evidently considerably older than 

 the other. No. 1, the youngest of these, shot in 

 Guernsey in August, when just assuming winter 

 plumage, the head being much streaked, even then, 

 with brown, showing that though adult it was not 

 avery old bird, has the usual white tip on the first 

 primary, below which the whole feather is black on 

 both webs, and below that a white spot on both 

 webs, for an inch ; the white, however, much 

 encroached upon on the outer part of the outer 

 web by a margin of black. In No. 2, probably the 

 older bird, the first primary has the white tip and 

 the white spot running into each other, thus making 

 the tip of the feather for nearly two inches white, 

 with only a slight patch of black on the outer web. 

 On the second primary of No. 1 the white tip is 

 present, but no white spot ; but on the same feather 

 of No. 2 there is a white spot on the inner web, 

 about an inch from the white tip ; this would, 

 probably, in a still older bird, become confluent 

 with the white tip, as in the first primary. I have 

 not, however, a sufficiently old bird to follow out 

 this for certain. In No. 1, the older bird, the pale 



