62 
HISTORY OF 
a clear pearly grey, with the secondaries tipped with white ; 
nape of the neck, and back part of the head, brownish black ; 
bill, reddish black ; legs, bright red. 
In its summer plumage, this bird is remarkable for the great 
change which it exhibits from that of winter, particularly with 
regard to the head, which at that time, together with the nape 
of the neck, is of a deep black. The bill and legs, also, become 
blood red. 
The young bird, also, before the first moult, exhibits consi- 
derable difference from the plumage of the adult ; the quills 
having their outer webs and tips black. The tail feathers are 
also tipped with black. The upper plumage is of brownish 
grey, instead of the beautiful pearly grey of the adult bird. 
Length, nine inches and a half ; length of the tarsi, one inch 
and a tenth. The proper habitat of the Little Gull is in Russia, 
Livonia, Hungary, and the shores of the Caspian Sea. 
