PLATE CLXXIV. 



To reconcile the various opinions that have prevailed among na- 

 turalifts refpefting the identity of fome fpecies of the Gull tribe would 

 be a talk of more than ordinary difficulty : tlie tranfitions of their 

 plumage, refulting from the effeQ;s of cliinate, the feafons of the year, 

 the difference of fcK, and the various periods of their grovi'th, pre- 

 clude the poffibility of fpeaking with any politive degree of precifion 

 in fome inftances, and in no one more it would appear upon the 

 teftimony of the beft writers^, than in the identity of the fpecies be- 

 fore us. 



Among the iirft of tliefe opinions we may mention that of Linnaeus^ 

 who confidered it as the Herring Gull in the firfl: year's plumage^ 

 Fabricius, the author of Fauna Groenlaridica, on the contrary con^ 

 ceived it to be the young of the Black-backed Gull^ and Pennant 

 concludes that it is not an immature bird^ but the female of the Black- 

 backed Gull. 



It would have tended much to confolidate the two firft of thefe 

 opinions had the conclufions offered by Dr. Latham in his general 

 Synopfis, been eftablifhed by later obfervation; naniely, that the 

 Herring Gull and the Black-backed Gull are of the fame fpecies;. 

 biit the contrary of this opinion has been fo clearly afcertained, that 

 in a fubfequent produdion, (Index Orn.) Dr. Latham himfelf aban- 

 dons that idea, and admits the Herring Gull and Black-backed Gull 

 to be fpecifically diftin6l. — This is our own opinion : we have the twQ 

 fexes of both fpecies in very perfe6l order of maturity in our own 

 Mufeum, and from a due comparifon of thefe, we cannot entertain 

 the leaft difti uft of the accuracy of this laft conclufion. In ftating 

 this, the reader will perceive that the idea of the Wagel being the 

 female of the Black-backed Gull, as Mr. Pennant imagines, is not 

 admiirible, the female of that fpecies being altogether diffimilar. 



Bui 



