70 
Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
they were all laid by the same bird.” Allhough some of the 
eggs of L. fuscus look like small reproductions of eggs of 
L. marimis, the general tone of the colour in the Lesser Black- 
backed Gull IS decidedly darker, and varies from clay-brown 
or ohve-brown to dark chocolate. The black overlying spots 
run somewhat into blotches, which are often congre<’ated at 
the larger end of the egg. Axis, 2-6-2-8s inches^ diam., 
1-8-1 -95. 
VIII. I HE HERRING-GULL. LARUS ARGENTATUS. 
Lams argentatus, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 600 (1788, ex Briinn.)- 
Macgdl. Brit. B. v. p. 544 (1852); Dresser, B. Eur. viii. 
P- 339, Pl- 602, fig. 2 (1873) ; B. O. U, List Brit. B. p. 188 
(1883) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. iii. p. 613 (1884) • 
Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 316 (1885); Saunders, Man 
Brit. B. p 655 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. Eig. Brit. B. part .xxiii. 
(1893); Saunders, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxv. p. 260 (1896). 
Adult Male. Crcneral colour above delicate pearly-grey j win^-- 
coverts like the back, the secondaries broadly tipped with white 
like the scapulars, forming a conspicuous bar across the wino- ■ 
bastard-wing pearly-grey, the outer feathers white; primary- 
coverts and jirimaries darker grey ; first primary blackish, with 
a grey wedge towards the ba.se of the inner web, the tips white 
preceded by a narrow black bar (often absent), which is again 
preceded by a broad band of white ; the second primary 
with a spot of white at a little distance from the end of 
the inner web, both these quills grey at the ba.sal portion of 
the inner web, this grey gradually increasing in extent until the 
black becomes but a band near the end of the inner primaries, 
and finally disappears on the innermost ones; upper tail-coverts 
and tail pure white, as well as the head and neck all round 
and the entire under surface of the body. Total len-nh 22-3 
inches; ciilincn, 2-2; wings, .16-5; tail, 6-6; tarsus, 2-5. 
The white markings on the first two primaries vary consider- 
ably. Sometimes the black sub-terminal black band is entirely 
absent, and the whole tip is white for more than two inches in 
other individuals the white spot near the end of the inner web 
of the second primary is totally absent. 
