LESSER BLACK- BACKED GULL. 
67 
(1873); B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 189 (1883) J Saunders, 
ed. Yarrcll’s Brit. B. iii. p. 624 (1884) ; Seebohm, Hist. 
Brit. B. iii. p. 319 (1885); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 659 
(1889); Lilford, Col.' Fig. Brit. B. part xxiii. (1893); 
Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. Mu,s. xxv. p. 250 (1896). 
[riale CL) 
Adult Male. — Similar to L. mari 7 ius, but very much smaller, 
and easily distinguished by the outer primaries, which have 
not the ends white for nearly three inches, but are blackish 
with a white sub -terminal bar before a black tip. General 
colour above slate-grey, with the same white ends to the 
secondaries and scapulars j the head, neck, mantle, and under 
surface of body white, as also the rump, upper tail-coverts, 
and tail ; “ bill yellow, the angle of the genys red ; tarsi and 
feet lemon-yellow; iris pale straw-yellow" {Saiimkri). Total 
length, 19-5 inches; culmen, 2-15; wing, 16-4; tail, 5-65 : 
tarsus, 2-6. 
Adult Female.— Similar to the male, but smaller, and with a 
less robust bill. Total length, i9’o inches; wing, i6'4. 
Adult In Winter. — Differs from the summer plumage in having 
the head and neck streaked with dusky-brown. ° 
Young. Brown above, with broad white margins, the head 
brown, streaked with white; sides of face ashy-brown, darker on 
the ear-coverts, narrowly streaked with dusky ; throat white ; 
remainder of the under surface of body streaked and mottled 
with ashy-brown, which is the prevailing colour of the under 
parts, the sides of the body barred with darker brown ; the 
tail-feathers black for the terminal half, white barred with 
black on the basal half, the black end decreasing tovvards the 
outer feathers. 1 he bill is slaty-grey, the feet flesh-coloured, 
and the iris brown. It takes four years for the fullv adult 
plumage to be gained. 
Nestling.— Greyish-buif, streaked and mottled with black on 
the upper parts and throat. 
CHaraoters. — In examining the series of adult Lesser Black- 
backed Gulls in the British Museum, one is struck by the 
great variation in the colour of the back, from slaty-grey to 
F 2 
