428 



the first and second with a broad white tip, the second having a black band across the white, the third 

 narrowly tipped with white ; inner primaries slate-grey towards the tip, and having a broad, black, sub- 

 terminal band and a narrow white tip ; secondaries broadly tipped with white, excepting some of the 

 inner ones; edge of the wing white; bill light yellow, the lower mandible with a bright red patch 

 towards the end ; iris hazel, the edge of the eyelids vermilion-red ; legs and feet pearly white, with a 

 fleshy or yellowish-fleshy tinge. Total length 28 inches, culmen 3 - 5, wing 2O0, tail 9"0, tarsus 3 - 0. 



Young in first autumn. Head and neck white, striped with greyish brown, most of the feathers having a 

 dark central line ; feathers on the back, scapulars, and upper wing-coverts greyish brown at the base, 

 dull dark brown in the centre, and broadly or narrowly tipped with white ; primaries dull black, the 

 inner ones narrowly tipped with white, and the innermost marbled with white and light brown; 

 secondaries greyish brown, broadly tipped with white, the inner ones margined and marbled with dull 

 white ; tail white at the base, marbled with brown, blackish-brown towards the tip, and narrowly tipped 

 with white ; underparts white, spotted and marked with greyish brown ; under wing-coverts dirty white, 

 marbled with brown; under tail-coverts white, irregularly barred with brown; bill brownish black; 

 legs dirty grey. 



Young Male (Pagham, Sussex, July) . Similar to the adult bird, but having the head and neck striated with 

 dull brown, and the feathers on the back washed with greyish brown and edged with fulvous ; quills 

 black, narrowly tipped with white, a few of the inner secondaries marbled with brown, as in the young 

 plumage ; tail white, the centre of most of the feathers marbled with brown ; bill dull yellowish, 

 brownish towards the tip. 



Winter plumage. Similar to the summer plumage, but with the head and neck striated with pale brown. 



Female. Similar to the male, but smaller, having the bill somewhat less. 



The range of this species is comparatively small, being almost restricted to Europe (where it is 

 found in the northern and central parts of the continent, straggling to the south in the winter 

 season) and North-eastern America. In Great Britain it is more often met with in the north, 

 except in the autumn and winter, when it is dispersed all over the coast. Mr. More, in his paper 

 on the distribution of birds during the breeding-season in Great Britain, writes that " it is only 

 in the north of Scotland where it is at all numerous. The few localities in which it has been 

 found breeding in England are scattered along the west coast, from Cornwall to Cumberland. 

 I cannot find any recent authority, except Yarrell, for its breeding in the marshes at the mouth 

 of the Thames." In Scotland, according to Mr. E. Gray, it is "much more common in the 

 remote northern districts than in the southern counties. There are several breeding-stations 

 within a few hours' journey of Glasgow; two of these are very dissimilar in their character, one 

 being situated near the summit of Ailsa Crag, and the other on the island of Inchmoin, in Loch 

 Lomond. In the former locality the nests are on the grassy slopes of the rock, and are mere 

 hollows formed in the turf, with a very scanty lining ; but in the island nursery they are formed 

 of materials similar to those used by the Lesser Black-backed Gull, and are generally found 

 among coarse grass and bushes of heath. Twelve or fourteen pairs annually take up their 

 quarters on Loch Lomond, in the island just named, but seem to keep aloof from the other 

 species frequenting the place, repairing in the daytime to the upland glens, where they occa- 

 sionally fall in with dead sheep and other animals, on which they surfeit themselves. In the 



