276 
points. One is its fondness for perching ; 
the specimens in the Western Aviary at the 
Zoo, where this photograph was taken, are 
constantly to be seen up on the perches 
with the doves confined with them; and in 
flying they seem almost as active as pigeons. 
Another remarkable thing about the bird is 
its proneness to variation. The specimen 
illustrated has only the throat, a ring round 
the eye, and a little patch at the base of 
the bill white, of the head-featherimg; but 
many examples have very much more white 
on the head, the whole face being frequently 
of this colour. It would thus seem that the 
species is still ina state of evolution, and, as 
such white-faced specimens were apparently 
unknown less than a quarter of a century 
ago, the evolution is quite recent. 
fa" 
In the brown-mottled plumage which so 
many of them wear as their first 
dress, the Herring-Gull (Larus 
argentatus) is almost impossible 
to distinguish from the Lesser Black-Backed 
Herring= 
Gull. 
aks : 
Photos by W. PB. Dando, £.Z7.8., Regent's Park. 
ARGUS PHEASANT, 
Animal 
Life 
HERRING-GULL. 
YOUNG 
Gull (“. fuscus). Herring-gulls have bred 
well at the Zoological Gardens, and it is note- 
worthy that the more richly-coloured herring- 
eull of the Mediterranean (L. cachinna@us) 
reproduces truly there, and shows no 
tendency to assume the paler and weaker 
hues of the northern species though bred 
in our very different chmate. The 
ordinary herring-gull also breeds in the 
London parks; two specimens bred last 
year in Regent’s Park might often have 
been seen flying about there, and there 
is another unpimoned specimen in the 
park which, judging by the fact that its 
plumage last year showed much of the 
pure grey and white of maturity, must 
have been a year older. It would be a 
very good thing if a park-bred strain of 
herring-gulls could be established, as the 
evolutions of these fine birds on the wang 
inake them great ornaments to the parks. 
oa 
THE poor Argus Pheasant looks very 
“sorry for himself” in the 
illustration, and well he may 
be, for he has evidently lost 
the ends of his toes from exposure to cold 
and damp in the aviary near the cattle 
sheds. Indeed, the argus, comme from 
the warm steamy jungles of the Malayan 
region, might be expected to need some 
Argus 
Pheasant. 
