i8 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



brown ; and the tail with a broad sub-terminal band 

 of the same colour. The second plumage assumed 

 as soon as the foregoing is completed retains brown 

 marks of immaturity on the scapulars and inner- 

 most secondaries ; the wing-coverts are streaked 

 with brown, and the tail still retains its brown sub- 

 terminal band. This plumage is carried until the 

 following spring, when the brown hood assumed 

 for the first time is mottled with white ; the tail- 

 band is more or less broken ; whilst the scapulars 

 and innermost secondaries assume the colour 

 peculiar to the adult. For several years the white 

 markings on the primaries gradually increase in 

 extent until the bird arrives at perfect maturity. 

 The larger Gulls of which the Herring Gull 

 may be taken as a typical species mature much 

 more slowly, the perfectly adult plumage not 

 being assumed until the bird is four years old. 

 The plumage succeeding the downy stage is 

 brown on the upper parts, each feather with a pale 

 margin, and white on the under parts streaked with 

 brown. After each succeeding moult in spring 

 and autumn, the traces of immaturity grow less, the 

 wing-coverts and tail retaining them longest. The 

 white spots on the primaries are the latest signs of 

 complete maturity. The colour of the feet, bill, 

 iris, and irides, slowly changes until that character- 

 istic of the adult is assumed. 



Gulls, popularly speaking, are inseparably associ- 

 ated with the sea, yet the haunts of many species, 



