340 
LAllID.E. 
Lesser Black-backs do not acquire their adult plumage until 
the end of .the third year; a bird a year old has the back 
mottled with bluish black and various shades of light brown. 
In the specimen above alluded to the head used to become 
spotted with light brownish grey toward the end of September, 
continuing in that state until the end of the following Feb- 
ruary. This is always the case likewise with the Greater 
Black-backed Gull, which resides with us all through the 
year. FTo mention is made by Mr Yarrell of this winter 
modification of the plumage in either species. 
One day in the middle of June I saw one of these birds 
sweep along the hillside and carry off in its bill what must 
have been a young Binged Plover, for an old bird of that 
species immediately gave chase, at the same time uttering 
loud and anxious cries. Such an event is no doubt of far 
too common occurrence. 
In the adult male (July 6th) the eye is straw yellow; 
edges of eyelids vermilion, tinged with yellow; angle of 
mouth, orange red; bill rich gamboge yellow; from a little 
behind the angle of the biU to nearly the tip, vermilion; a 
smaller and fainter patch immediately above it on the upper 
mandible. Feet and legs gamboge, not becoming paler up- 
wards, as Macgillivray states. Claws deep brovmish grey. 
In the female (June 30th) the eye is pale straw yellow ; 
edges of eyelids, orange red ; bill yellow, the angle vermilion ; 
legs and feet, dull pale yellow ; claws black. 
THE HEEBIXG GULL. 
Lams argentatus. 
WHITE MAA. 
Vigorous, Augilant, bold, and active, the Herring Gull, so 
well known on all our coasts, may be accepted as the most 
truly typical of all its tribe. L^nlike the Glaucous, the Iceland, 
and the Ivoiy Gulls, it shares with the hardy Shetland fisher- 
