LARID.E. 581 



of marine insects, and probably small fish. Yarrell, 

 still quoting Colonel Sabine, says they get their 

 food on the sea-beach, standing near the water's 

 edge and picking up the marine insects that are cast 

 on shore. 



The following description of the young bird is 

 taken from a specimen shot some time ago at Tor- 

 bay, and now in my collection : it is in the plumage 

 in which the greater number of British-killed speci- 

 mens have been found. The bill in my specimen has 

 of course faded considerably, but as there is no bird- 

 stuffer's paint about it I can form a tolerable guess 

 at the original colour, which seems to have been 

 darkish horn towards the tip and yellowish brown at 

 the base, and this agrees very nearly with the de- 

 scription of a recently killed-specinien in the ' Zoolo- 

 gist' for 1867 (Second Series, p. 543), but not quite 

 so well with that given by Mr. Blake-Knox, also of a 

 recently killed specimen, in the same journal for 

 1866 (p. 526), "bill thick for its length, dusky;" 

 but the colour of the bills of all the Gulls varies 

 very much as they advance in age, quite as much as 

 the rest of the plumage. The forehead and the 

 space between the bill and the eye white ; the top of 

 the head, nape, back, scapulars, wing-coverts and 

 tertials dark grey, considerably darker than the usual 

 grey of Gulls, and there is a dark, nearly black, 

 streak near the margin of each feather, the margins 

 themselves white ; the tail-coverts white ; the tail 



3 D 8 



