HERRING-GULL. 
71 
Adult Female. — Similar to the male, but smaller. 1 otal length, 
20'5 inches; wing, iS'7- Mr. Saunders says that, irrespective 
of sex, there is “ great individual variation.’' 
Adult in Winter. — Similar to the summer plumage, but with 
brownish-grey streaks on the head and neck. 
Young.— On the changes of plumage undergone by the young 
bird, it is better to quote from Mr. Saunders, as the succession 
of plumages appears to be somewhat intricate. According to 
him (Cat. 13. xxv. p. 264), in the first autumn, the upper parts 
are streaked and mottled with brown and greyish-buft ; quills 
dark umber, with paler inner webs and whitish tips to most ; 
rectrices similar, but more or less mottled with whitish at the 
bases of the two or three outer pairs ; upper tail-coverts brown, 
with buffish-white tips ; under parts nearly uniform brown at 
first, but afterwards brownish grey, mottled ; bill blackish, paler 
at the base of the lower mandible. 
In the second autumn the head is nearly white, streaked with 
greyish-brown; the upper parts are barred with brown on a 
greyish ground, though no pure grey feathers have yet made 
their appearance on the mantle ; quills paler ; tail more mottled 
with white at the bases of all the feathers. 
In the third autumn the feathers of the mantle are chiefly grey, 
with some brownish streaks down the shafts ; a faint sub-apical 
spot begins to show on the outermost primary ; the tail-coverts 
are partly white, and the dark portion of the rectrices is much 
broken up ; under parts nearly white. _ 
In the fourth autumn the sub-apical patch on the first 
primary is larger, and the quills from the fifth upwards are 
banded with black and tipped with white; tail-feathers white, 
sli'ditly vermiculated with brown ; bill greenish-yellow basally, 
reddish-black at the angle. 
At the moult of the fifth autumn all brown markings are lost, 
the primaries have white tips, black bars and grey wedges, 
though the proportion of dark colouring in the quills is greater 
than it is in older birds. 
Characters. — Though the male Herring-Gull is sometimes 
nearly as big as a female Great black-backcd Gull, it is e.asily 
told by its much less massive bill and by the pearl-grey back. 
This distinguishes the old birds, and although there is some 
