LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 169 



Plumages. — The downy young exhibit two color phases, with con- 

 siderable variation in each. In the brown phase the upper parts are 

 "wood brown" anteriorly, becoming "Isabella color" posteriorly; 

 the throat and chest are " ochraceous buff," shading off to white on 

 the belly. The back is heavily spotted or variegated with dusky, 

 and the head is mottled with the same ; there is a frontal black space 

 at the base of the bill and usually a few dusky spots on the throat. 

 In the gray phase the buff and brown tints are entirely replaced by 

 light shades of " neutral gray " or " mouse gray," darker above and 

 lighter below, the dusky markings on the upper parts being as de- 

 scribed above. 



The juvenal, or first plumage is acquired during July, previous 

 to the flight stage. The back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts 

 are " hair brown " and " drab " ; the feathers edged with " wood 

 brown ; " the greater wing-coverts are gray ; the primaries are dusky 

 black tipped with white; the secondaries are centrally black, basally 

 gray, broadly tipped, and edged with white; the tertials are dusky, 

 broadly edged with white ; the head is mottled with dusky and whit- 

 ish above, white below, with a black crescentic spot in front of the 

 eye and a white spot below it, the upper tail-coverts are white ; the 

 tail is light gray, with a broad subterminal band of dusky; the 

 under parts are pure white, or rarely tinged with rosy. 



The postjuvenal molt begins early in September and by Novem- 

 ber or December the first winter plumage is fully acquired by a 

 partial molt, which involves everything but the wings and tail. 

 The forehead is now largely white and the under parts are entirely so. 

 The crown and occiput are mottled with dusky, the markings coalesc- 

 ing into a solid, slate-colored, nuchal collar, including the orbital 

 and auricular regions ; and the back is clear " gull-gray." This 

 plumage is worn all winter until a complete molt occurs in May 

 or earlier, which is practically a prenuptial and a postnuptial 

 molt combined. This is a very peculiar molt, for, so far as I know, 

 no other gull molts its wings and tail so early in the spring. 

 I have seen at least six birds with the primaries in full molt in 

 May, and fully as many in fresh plumage that had completed the 

 molt in June. Although the birds do not breed in this plumage, I 

 suppose we may as well call it a first-nuptial plumage. It is char- 

 acterized by a partial, black hood, the head being mottled black and 

 white. There is much individual variation, but usually the black 

 predominates above and the white below; the outer primary is 

 black, with a broad whitish wedge extending more than halfway up 

 the inner web. The black decreases on each succeeding primary in- 

 wardly until it nearly or quite disappears on the innermost, which is 

 largely "gull-gray." All the primaries are white-tipped; the tail 

 is usually like the adult, but sometimes has a few dusky shaft streaks 



