124 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



no flap of wing, no flick of tail, the height above the vessel 

 remaining practically constant all the time. I imagine that 

 this is possible only when the wind suits in every way, in 

 force as well as in direction. But it is a sight which never 

 ceases to interest the thoughtful, and now that moving 

 pictures of animal movements are becoming so perfect, it 

 should soon be demonstrated that there is as much of 

 instruction in it as of interest. 



We have two names in English for this class of birds, 

 gulls and mews. Both have their counterpart in French, 

 Goeland and Moiiette, and both are borrowed from older 

 sources, "gull" from the welsh "gwylan," and "mew" from 

 an older Norse or Icelandic name. The classical name of 

 the genus is Lams, but this, according to the customary 

 variety of views amongst "authorities," is richly diversified. 



Lams Cantis, the hoary white gull, is our commonest 

 kind. He is a fine big bird when at his maximum growth 

 and strength, quite a foot and a half long. Ages of immunity 

 from persecution — except by Sunday trippers and the like — 

 have made him bold. He shuns man no more than the rook 

 does. On the contrary he cultivates his acquaintance, and 

 is willing on the smallest encouragement to be friendly, not 

 to say intimate. On such occasions one can sit and admire 

 his beauties to the full. They consist in the first place of 

 the immaculate purity of his white feathers. If it is possible 

 for anything to be whiter than snow it is the covering of the 

 head, breast, and lower parts of the common gull. The 

 ivory gull has more of this spotless purity even than its 

 cousin, but I have not seen the ivory gull in these waters. 

 Nature has provided, as she always does, a note or two of 

 difference and contrast in the plumage of all the gulls. In 

 Lams Canus these consist of a very delicate shade of grey- 

 blue on the back, whilst the wing primaries are black tipped 

 with white. Some species change considerably in the 

 breeding season, donning, some of them, a dark cap for the 

 time being. The young too, until they have developed adult 

 plumage, are very differently marked from their parents. 

 The only one I ever shot, many years ago now, was killed in 

 the belief that it was an entirely new variety. At the 

 Museum it was discoveredlo be simply an immature specimen 

 of a very common kind. 



L. Ridibiindus, the black-headed gull, is almost as 

 common on inland waters as it is near the sea. Except for 

 the black cap, the markings of this are not very different 

 from those of the last. The beak, however, is red, whilst that 

 of the common gull is yellowish. The feet and legs, too, of 

 Ridibiindus are red, not the dark, almost black colour of 

 those of Canus. In some parts of England the eggs of this 



