GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



187 



Larus varius. Briss. Orn. 6. 167./?/. 15. 



Wagellus Corn ubien sum, Raii Syn. 130. A. 



Le Goeland varic ou Grisard. Buff, Hist. Nat. Ois. 8. 413. 



Buff. PI. Enl. 266. 

 Wagel Gull. Penn. Brit. Zool. 2. 247. A. Penn. Arct. Zool 2. 



433. Lath. Gen. Syn, 6. 375. Lexu. Brit. Birdsy 6. pi. 209. 



JValc. Syn. I. pi. III. Mont. Orn. Diet. 1 . Beiv. Brit. Birds, 



2. 216. Linn. Trans, u. xii. 547. 



This is the largest of the Gulls, being nearly thirty- 

 inches in length : in its winter plumage it has its beak 

 of a yellowish-white colour, with the angle of its lower 

 mandible bright red : the orbits are orange, and the 

 irides bright yellow : the top of its head, space round 

 the eyes, the occiput, and nape, white ; each feather 

 having a longitudinal stripe of bright brown down 

 its shaft : the forehead, throat, neck, all the under 

 parts of the body, and of the back, and the tail, of a 

 clear white : the top of the back, scapulars, and wings 

 of a deep black, apparently shaded with bluish : the 

 quills towards their tips are very deep black, and are 

 tipped with white ; the secondaries and scapulars are 

 also tipped with white : the legs are dull whitish. 

 The summer dress diifers from the above in having 

 the top of the head, the space round the eyes, the 

 occiput, and nape of a pure white, without any brown 

 spots. The young of the first year have the head 

 and the fore part of the neck of a greyish-white, 

 thickly sprinkled with brown spots, especially on the 

 neck : the feathers on the upper part of the plumage 

 are dusky-brown in the middle, bordered and tipped 

 with reddish white ; which colour is formed into trans- 

 verse bands on the wing-coverts : the under parts are 

 of a dull griseous, striped with broad zigzags, and spots 



