NORTHEEN SILVER GULL. 
of all feathers white tipped with light brown, with a penultimate bar of much darker 
brown ; these colours increase in depth on the scapulars ; rump white ; tail-feathers 
with white tips, penultimate brown bar and white bases ; general under-coloration 
white ; primaries black with white tips, the first two primaries showing incipient 
mirrors {which are not present in first complete immature-plumage, hut reappear 
at a later age) ; greater coverts white, the outermost with irregular black markings, 
the next two fringed on outer web with darker brown. (These are similar in 
immature birds, but are pure white in adult.) 
Nest and Eggs. Do not appear to have been described. 
Breeding-season. May onward. 
Writing from Claremont Islands, G. F. Mathew* says : “ Only a pair of these 
birds were noticed, and they were very vociferous as I approached a certain 
point of the island, flying to and fro overhead in a very excited manner, as if 
they had a nest, or young, close at hand. However, a careful search failed 
to disclose any. At times they came so near that I was able to observe them 
minutely. They were certainly larger than those to be seen every day in 
Sydney Harbour, and their beaks were of a darker brownish-red, almost black 
at the tip, but otherwise I could detect no difference.” 
Mr. F. Berney,t writing from the Richmond River district in North 
Queensland, noted a specimen of this Gull on a water-hole. This was in the 
middle of a day-time in August, 1903. 
Messrs. Campbell and WhiteJ say : “ These beautiful, although marauding 
Gulls, were breeding at intervals round Mast Head Island (Capricorn group, 
Queensland), where their nests were picturesquely constructed amongst the 
herbage or sheltered beneath a sheoak {Casurina) sapling. No doubt the 
Gulls are very destructive to the eggs of the other kinds of birds frequenting 
the island. Judging by the manner they hawked over the Pisonia and other 
trees, the harmless little Noddies were probably special victims of the GuUs. 
Young in down, as well as eggs, of the Gulls were noted. 
“ Several small communities of these Gulls frequented the sandy beaches 
of North-West and Tryon Islands but no sign of nesting was observed there.” 
In his Birds of Australia, Vol. VII., pi. 20, 1848, Gould figured Xe^na 
jamesonii and there wrote ; “ There is a Gull in Torres’ Straits so similar to 
the bird here represented that its larger size is the only difference I have 
been able to detect between them.” 
Apparently Bonaparte named this somewhere in MS. as G. goiildi, and 
when Bruch {Journ. fur Ornith., 1853, p. 102) reviewed the Laridce, he noted 
“ gouldii Bp.” as a synonym of “ Gavia jainesonii Wils., Van Diemensland.” 
This drew from Bonaparte {Naumannia, 1854, p. 216) the retort : “ Quant a 
* Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol X., p. 256, 1885. 
t Emu, Vol VI., p. 114, 1907. 
i ib., Vol. X., p. 201, 1910. 
459 
