THE BLACK-BACKED GULL. 385 



which the habits are well known, the young are mottled, 

 acquire their mature plumage gradually, and not perfectly 

 till the third year, and there is every reason to believe that 

 the same difference of plumage with age runs through the 

 whole of the genus. So that a mottled gull is always a bird 

 under three years old. 



The different species of gulls are sometimes separated 

 into the subdivision of larger and lesser; but, unless in 

 respect of size, that seems a distinction without any useful 

 difference, as no difference in the habits of the birds accords 

 with it.* 



THE BLACK-BACKED GULL (Larus marinus). 



This is the largest species found on the British shores, and 

 it is one which is resident all the year, though rather at par- 

 ticular spots than generally along the shores. It is a marsh 

 breeder, but breeds in those near the sea, and especially on 

 loose marshy islands. It is exceedingly voracious, an expert 

 fisher, but always on the watch for stranded fish, or any car- 

 rion or garbage that it can find ; and it is also accused of 

 making prize of the young of some other water-birds, of 

 rabbits, and even, it is said, of lambs. It is a large and 

 powerful bird, measuring two feet and a half in length, nearly 

 six in the stretch of the wings, and weighing nearly five 

 pounds. The pairs generally keep together for the greater 

 part of the year. 



The feet are flesh-coloured, the irides white, and the bill 

 yellow, the latter four inches in length, and with a red spot, 



* The flight of these birds is peculiarly light, buoyant, and graceful ; 

 they often wheel around in circles, and making head against the wind, 

 perform the most elegant evolutions. They do not dive, but they skim 

 their food from the surface of the water, on which also they can rest ; 

 but they can scarcely be called swimming-birds. One species, Larus 

 ridibundus, visits the lakes of the interior, for the purpose of breeding. 

 M. 



VOL. II. 2 C 



