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ORD. III. GEN. III. GULL. 



SPE-. II*. WAG EL GULL. 



PI. 2IO. 



Larus nasvius. Lin. Syft. I. p. 225. 



Le Goeland varie, ou le Grifard. Brif. Orn. VI. p. 167. 



This bird, which we confider as die female of the preceding, weighs be- 

 tween three and four pounds, is two feet in length, and five in breadth. The 

 bill is dark horn-colour, near three inches long, flout, and curved at the end : 

 the throat is white, with fmall pale fpecks, increafing in fize toward the breaft 

 and under parts : top of the head, back, and wings, a mixture of brownifh 

 white, and grey, with dark brown markings : quill feathers, black : tail, white, 

 fpotted with black, with a broad black bar near the end, and the tips of the 

 feathers white : legs, pale flefh-colour. 



This and other of the gulls have been ftigmatized with the name of dung- 

 hunters by fuperficial obfervers : the fad is, in the breeding feafon we have 

 obferved the terns and black-headed gulls, to be purfued by thefe and other 

 large birds of this genus, for the fmall fifh they are carrying in their beaks to 

 their young, which, as they let them fall through fear, the larger bird dexter- 

 oufly catches, before they reach the water. 



