LARIDJE. 



597 



and tail-coverts white ; round the eye are a few hair- 

 like dark feathers ; the top of the head mixed gull- 

 grey and white; back of the head and neck grey, 

 with a longish spot of dark lead-grey, nearly black, 

 behind the ear-coverts ; the grey at the back of the 

 neck runs down towards the breast, where the black 

 mark is in the young bird ; the white mark remains, 

 but not so well defined ; back, scapulars and wing- 

 coverts gull-grey, except a few of the longer scapu- 

 lars, which are tipped with white ; the four first 

 primary quills are black at the tips, the first black 

 on the outer web also, the rest of these feathers are 

 pale gull-grey, nearly white; the fifth has a light 

 gull- grey spot at the extreme end of the black tip ; 

 the sixth has only a very small spot towards the tip 

 of the outer web ; the rest of the feathers gull- grey, 

 margined on the tip and outer web with white ; the 

 secondaries and tertials are gull-grey, tipped with 

 white ; the legs, toes and webs are a sort of dull 

 olive-brown. The summer plumage of the adult 

 only differs in having the whole of the head and neck, 

 as far as the white below where the black band was, 

 white. 



The eggs are said to vary greatly in colour and 

 markings, from a creamy blue, speckled with slaty 

 brown (varying in every shade of brown), to a rich 

 deep umber, clouded with darker blotches.* 



* ' Zoologist' for 1868 (Second Series, p, 1367). 



