HERRING-GULL. 71 



Adult Female. Similar to the male, but smaller. Total length, 

 20*5 inches; wing, 157. Mr. Saunders says that, irrespective 

 of sex, there is " great individual variation." 



Adult in Winter. Similar to the summer plumage, but with 

 brownish-grey streaks on the head and neck. 



Young. On the changes of plumage undergone by the young 

 bird, it is better to quote from Mr. Saunders, as the succession 

 of plumages appears to be somewhat intricate. According to 

 him (Cat. B. xxv. p. 264), in the first autumn, the upper parts 

 are streaked and mottled with brown and greyish-buff ; quills 

 dark umber, with paler inner webs and whitish tips to most ; 

 rectrices similar, but more or less mottled with whitish at the 

 bases of the two or three outer pairs ; upper tail-coverts brown, 

 with huffish- white tips; under parts nearly uniform brown at 

 first, but afterwards brownish grey, mottled ; bill blackish, paler 

 at the base of the lower mandible. 



In the second autumn the head is nearly white, streaked with 

 greyish-brown ; the upper parts are barred with brown on a 

 greyish ground, though no pure grey feathers have yet made 

 their appearance on the mantle ; quills paler ; tail more mottled 

 with white at the bases of all the feathers. 



In the third autumn the feathers of the mantle are chiefly grey, 

 with some brownish streaks down the shafts ; a faint sub-apical 

 spot begins to show on the outermost primary ; the tail-coverts 

 are partly white, and the dark portion of the rectrices is much 

 broken up ; under parts nearly white. 



In the fourth autumn the sub-apical patch on the first 

 primary is larger, and the quills from the fifth upwards are 

 banded with black and tipped with white ; tail-feathers white, 

 slightly vermiculated with brown ; bill greenish-yellow basally, 

 reddish-black at the angle. 



At the moult of the fifth autumn all brown markings are lost, 

 the primaries have white tips, black bars and grey wedges, 

 though the proportion of dark colouring in the quills is greater 

 than it is in older birds. 



Characters. Though the male Herring-Gull is sometimes 

 nearly as big as a female Great Black-backed Gull, it is easily 

 told by its much less massive bill and by the pearl-grey back. 

 This distinguishes the old birds, and although there is some 



