302 
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 
white; the bill is strong, yellow when fresh, slightly 
tinted with greenish, — the mandible on its angle 
orange-red, and having in this an irregular dark 
spot upon its cutting edge, which crosses and ap- 
pears on the maxilla also about half-way between 
the nostrils and the tip ; the legs and feet are livid, 
or of a yellowish grey tinted with pink. The larger 
size, colour of the legs, and dark spot on the bill, 
easily distinguishes this species from the next. 
THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. 
Lorn fmcus, Linneus. 
PLATE XXVI. 
Laras fuscus, Zim . — Goeland a pied jaunes, Temm . — Lesser 
Black-backed, or Yellow-legged Gull of British authors. 
This handsome species was long confounded with 
the last, from the great similarity of its plumage to 
a casual observer. It is at once, however, distin- 
guished by its lesser size and yellow legs, and it 
varies considerably in its habits being much less 
maritime. It is a bird very generally distributed 
around our shores as well as those of Ireland, but 
both this and the last sometimes vary their breed- 
