GULL. 167 



A bird of this kind was taken near Oxford, and another met 

 with between the Islands of Teneriffe and Bonavista.* 



In the Leverian Mnseum was one of this Species, but much 

 smaller than the above. General colour brown ; the head and neck 

 crossed with numerous, transverse, darker lines; the breast and belly 

 mottled with dusky white; sides barred with the same; base of the 

 tail white; the rest of the length dusky black, shape rounded; the 

 two middle feathers not particularly longer than the others ; the legs, 

 half the toes, and webs yellowish brown, the end half black. 



One of these birds was sent to me by Mr. Jackson, shot at Field 

 Place, near Horsham, in Sussex, the beginning of September. It 

 differed from the first described in a few particulars ; the whole 

 plumage darker coloured, and mixed with ferruginous ; the quills 

 marked at the tips with the same; breast mottled with white ; shape 

 of the tail a trifle rounded at the end, and the wings, when closed, 

 reaching an inch beyond the tip of it:f the feathers of the tail, to about 

 one-third from the base, are white within ; the rest of the length, 

 and the outer webs wholly black ; under parts of the body, from the 

 breast, dull pale ferruginous, barred with dusky; under tail coverts 

 ferruginous, crossed with three or four bars of black ; about the breast 

 mottled with white; quills white at the base; legs blue; webs and 

 claws black, but the webs are white for one-third from the base. 



We have already supposed this to be the same which Buffon 

 describes as the Stercoraire, and quotes the Act. Holm, for it, as given 

 by M. Ghister,J and that it lays the eggs on the rocks; that the male 

 is darker in colour, and a trifle bigger than the female, and the cry 



* The dung of this bird is red, supposed to be owing to its feeding on the Helix jan- 

 thina Lin. the inhabitant of which furnished the purpura of the antient Greeks. Said to 

 be found on the Coasts of Somersetshire, and those of South Wales. — Phil. Trans. Vol. xv. 

 p. 1278. 



f The tail in this bird had only ten feathers, and we may probably think that the bird 

 had lost two, as others have twelve. 



J Tom. xi. p. 51. 



