BRITISH BIRDS, 
217 
have a much lighter and more mixed appearance : 
the quills are plain black : the middle tail feathers 
the fame, but tipped with white, and crofled with a 
narrow white bar towards the root or bafe : the fide 
feathers are mottled black and white : the legs are 
•of a dirty white, fometimes bluflied with red. 
Mr Pennant treated of the Wagel as a diftind 
fpecies, from an opinion he had formed, that 
the firll colours of the hides, of the quill feathers, 
and qf the tail, are in all birds permanent.’^ Fur- 
ther obfervation, however, caufed him to alter his 
mind. Other obfervers fay that this Gull is the 
young of the Herring Gull, and that it does not 
change its grey plumage until the fourth year. 
E e 
VoL. 11. t 
