GULL. 141 



favoured with an inspection of them. The one in question, there 

 figured, has the appearance and bill of a Gull, with a brownish lead- 

 coloured plumage, mottled about the head, and sides under the eyes ; 

 the quills and tail of even lengths. It is described as being the size 

 of an Ouzel, with long wings, short legs, generally black ; the guts 

 white, close together as a snail, three-quarters of an ell long; that it 

 comes in May (on the Rhine), and stays to July; sometimes many 

 fly together. On the 20th of April, 1650, four of them were killed, 

 which were all hens, and had eggs as big as a radish seed, all of the 

 same size ; they breed in July. 



This, we have no doubt, is a female, or immature bird of the 

 Little Gull, which we may suppose to gain the black about the head 

 by degrees, in the same manner as the Black-headed Species. 



The Little Gull has been lately found to inhabit our kingdom, 

 for which knowledge we are indebted to Mr. Plasted, of Chelsea, 

 who obliged me with a sight of a specimen, preserved in his collec- 

 tion, and which was shot on the Thames, not far from his house. 

 It answers to Baltner's short description, but will be better under- 

 stood by the following account. 



The length is about ten inches. Bill three-quarters of an inch 

 or more; inside of the mouth orange; forehead and crown white ; 

 back of the head and part of the neck contiguous, dark cinereous, with 

 a hoary tinge ; behind the eye a white streak ; on the ears a black 

 spot; between the bill and eye white, but forwards the orbit is black; 

 from whence to the black spot on the ear is a mixture of dark 

 cinereous and white ; body above cinereous grey ; upper tail coverts 

 mostly white ; beneath from the chin white, but the grey of the 

 back tends a little downwards on each side of the breast; tail some- 

 what concave at the end, the feathers white, the tips for about an 

 inch black, but the outer one wholly white, except a small dusky 

 spot within at the end, the tips ending in dirty white; the wings 

 mixed black, white, and cinereous; greater quills white within, the 

 outer webs, shafts, and part of the inner webs close to the shafts, the 



