Class II. BLACK BACKED GULL. 173 



under side, tail and lower part of the back, are 

 white ; the upper part of the back, and wings, 

 are black ; the quil feathers tipt with Avhite ; 

 the legs of a pale flesh color. 



This kind inhabits our coasts in small num- 

 bers ; and breeds in the highest cliffs. It feeds 

 not only on fish, but like the Raven, very gree- 

 dily devours carrion. Its egg is very blunt at 

 each end, of a dusky olive color, quite black 

 at the greater end, and the rest of it thinly 

 marked with dusky spots. 



I have seen on the coast of Anglesey, a bird 

 that agrees in all respects with this except in 

 size, in wanting the black spot on the bill, and 

 in the color of the legs, which in this are of a 

 bright yellow ; the extent of wings is only four 

 feet five ; the length only twentj^-two inches ; 

 the weight one pound and a half This species, 

 or perhaps variety (for I dare not assert which) 

 rambles far from the sea, and has been shot at 

 Bulstrode^ in Middlesex'.^' 



* This appears to be the Less Black back Gull, described 

 by Mr. Montagu as a distinct species in his Ornithological 

 dictionary, in which he refers, as a synonym, to the Silvery 

 Gull of the Arctic Zoology, but the latter was considered by 

 Mr. Pennant, in the last edition of that work, as " only a Her- 

 ring Gull whitened by extreme age." 



