THE GULL FAMILY 319 



The last bird that fell to the gun of the best of 

 my old friends, when I shot with him in the marshes, 

 was a Pewit Gull. 



THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 

 (Larus marinus.) 



Male : Summer plumage. — The bill is pure yellow, 

 with the patch near the end of the lower mandible 

 carmine ; iris pale yellow ; the edges of the eyelids 

 carmine. Head and neck are pure white ; back 

 and wings very dark slate colour, or greyish-black 

 tinged with purple. The quills are tipped with 

 white. All the lower parts are pure white ; legs 

 and feet flesh-coloured. Length, from bill to end 

 of tail, twenty-nine and sometimes thirty inches. 



Winter plumage. — The patch on the bill is orange 

 red ; head and neck white, with light brown streaks ; 

 rest of plumage as in summer. 



The female is similar to male, but smaller. The 

 sizes of these birds are a little different at times, 

 also the depth of the dark parts of the plumage. 

 The reason for this one need not explain. 



The young have bill brownish-black, base of lower 

 mandible flesh-coloured ; iris dark brown ; head and 

 neck hoary white, streaked with greyish-brown, 

 broader on the hind-part of the neck. The upper 

 parts are mottled with black, dirty white, and grey 

 brown ; wing coverts barred with brown ; primary 

 quills blackish-brown, tipped with white ; tail feathers 



