Crass BLACK BACKED GULL. 
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 white ; 
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 twenty-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, asa synonym, to the Silvery 
Gull of the Arctic Zoology, but the latter was. considered by 
Mr. Pennant, in the last edition of ae work, as ES only a Her- 
ting Gull whitened by extreme age.” 
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