196 



CRIMSON-BILLED GULL. 



This beautiful species, in the mature state, Has its 

 beak lead-coloured at its base, and of a yellow-ochre 

 colour at its tip : its entire plumage is pure spotless 

 snowy-white : the legs are greyish-black, and the skin 

 very rough : they are feathered within a very short 

 distance of the knee : claws black : its length about 

 twenty inches. The young have the plumage mot- 

 tled with brown about the head and wings, and the 

 quills and tail-feathers are tipped with brown. 



This bird inhabits the coasts of Greenland and 

 Spitzbergen, and is found at a distance from land, 

 which it is said rarely to visit except for the pur- 

 pose of incubation. Very little is known of its man- 

 ners : it appears to be fond of whale blubber, which 

 attracts great numbers. 



CRIMSON-BILLED GULL. 



(Larus Novae Hollandiee.) 



La. albus, dorso alisque argenteo-griseis, rostro jjedibusqiie coc- 

 cineis. 



White Gull with the back and wings silvery grey, the beak and 



legs crimson. 

 Crimson-billed Gull. Lath. Gen. Hist. x. 145. 



" Length seventeen or eighteen inches : beak from 

 gape to point two inches, colour crimson : irides yel- 

 low-hazel ; eyelids dotted with crimson : head, neck, 

 and under parts of the body white : back and wings 

 pale silvery grey : outer border of the wings white 

 some of the greater quills chiefly white, but two or ; 



