COMMON GULL. 



Iff 



I. pi. 1 14. Lew. Brit. Birds, 6. /;/. 210. Don. Brit. Birds, 

 6.pL 79. Mont. Orn. Did. 1. and Supp. Beiv. Brit, Birds, 

 2.221. 



This bird, which is the commonest of the Gull 

 tribe, at least in this part of the world, is in length 

 about seventeen inches, and in its winter plumage 

 has the beak yellowish-green at its base, and yellow- 

 ochre at its point : its mouth is orange : irides brown ; 

 orbits naked and red : the head, occiput, nape, and 

 sides of the neck white, sprinkled with numerous 

 dusky-brown spots : the throat, all the under parts, 

 rump, and tail are pure white : the back, scapulars, 

 and wings are pure bluish-ash : the quills are deep 

 black towards the tip, and the two outer ones have a 

 long white space ; they are all, as well as the scapu- 

 lars and secondaries, tipped with white : the legs are 

 ashy-blue spotted with yellow. The young have all 

 the upper parts of a grey-brown : the feathers of the 

 back and of the wings bordered and tipped with 

 whitish-yellow : the forehead and all the under parts 

 are whitish, with spots and shades of clear grey on 

 the breast and on the sides : the base of the tail is 

 white ; the rest is blackish-brown tipped with whitish : 

 the quills are blackish-brown : the legs are livid yel- 

 lowish : the beak is black : orbits and eyes brown. 

 After the first autumnal moult the back receives 

 i^veral pure ashy-blue feathers, varied with others, 

 which are brown and edged with yellow : the head is 

 striped with brown on a white ground : the undei 

 parts become whiter, and the base of the beak is livid 

 yellowish, with its tip dusky. After the second au- 

 tumnal moult there remains but a straight brownish 



