596 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



band at the tip ; the legs, toes and webs are black. 

 In this state of plumage it is the "Tarrock" of 

 Bewick and some earlier authors. The black band 

 at the back of the neck is the first part of this 

 Tarrock plumage which disappears Mr. Blake- 

 Knox, in his paper on the plumages of the Kittiwake 

 ('Zoologist' for 1867, p. 548), says in the second 

 summer ; but it is not equalty clear from his paper 

 when the bird loses the black markings of the wing : 

 they certainly appear very reluctant to depart en- 

 tirely, for I have seen birds, otherwise in nearly 

 adult plumage, with a few black specks still left on 

 the lesser wing-coverts, and I have shot, in Novem- 

 ber, out of the same flock, and indeed at the same 

 shot, birds in perfect Tarrock plumage, with the 

 black band at the bottom of the neck quite perfect, 

 and others again in which that had entirely dis- 

 appeared, but the Tarrock markings on the wings 

 were still quite perfect: these birds were then 

 exactly in the same plumage as the Little Gull 

 before mentioned. The following description of the 

 adult in winter plumage is taken from the bird before 

 mentioned as having been picked up at Crowcombe 

 Heathfield in the beginning of March : it does not 

 appear at that time to have been at all changing to 

 its summer plumage : the bill is lemon-yellow ; the 

 forehead to the top of the head, space from the bill 

 to the eye, all under the eye and a patch behind the 

 eye, chin, throat, breast and all the under parts, tail 



