GULL. I SI 



Young 1 birds are at first ash-coloured, spotted, or mottled with 

 brown and dirty white ; but do not arrive at full maturity until the 

 third season, and even then in some specimens the wing coverts are 

 still mottled with brown, with a mottled baron the tail feathers: and 

 it may be observed, that in the two first years the young of the 

 Black-backed are so much alike, as not to be ascertained, till the 

 mature feathers begin to appear on the back. 



The Herring Gull is common in this kingdom, and frequents 

 the same places with the following species; scrapes together some 

 dead grass for a nest, and lays three eggs, pale dirty white, marked 

 with pale ferruginous streaks, and blotched with black, oval in shape, 

 and two inches and three quarters in length. This species was found 

 to breed on an Island off St. David's, and the nests innumerable; 

 and as there was a mixture of the immature birds, we may be inclined 

 lo believe, that they breed before their plumage appears in the com- 

 plete state, They are also in numbers about a mile south of Troup 

 Head, and on the south Ronaldsha, Pentland, Skerrie, and Copinsha, 

 and other places similar. 



15.— SILVERY GULL. 



Lanis argentatus, Ind.Orn.u. 814. Gm.Lin.j. 600. Brun. No. 149. Faun, groenl. 



p. 101. (Obs.) Lin. Trans, viii. 267. Tern. Man. 494. Id. Ed. 2d. 764. Frankl. 



Narr. App. p. 695. 

 Goeland a manteau gris et blanc, Buf. viii. 421. — three year's bird. 

 Grande Mouette cendree, Buf. viii. 428. PI. enl. 977. 

 Lesser black-backed Gull, Orn. Diet. Sf Supp. 

 Silvery Gull, Gen. Syn. vi. 375. Arct. Zoo/, ii. p. 533. C. Id. Sup. p. 70. 



THIS is about twenty-two inches in length, and weighs about 

 thirty-six ounces. Bill yellow, with an orange spot on the under 

 mandible; irides pale yellow; the head, neck, tail, and all beneath, 

 white; back, scapulars, and wings, dusky black ; prime quills dusky, 

 towards the end black ; the point of the first white, with the end 

 black ; the second the same, with only a white spot within the black ; 



