BRITISH BIRDS. 
tlie tail pure white^ with some of the feathers tipped 
with dusky; the tail feathers are white, tipped more 
or less with black ; the wings have a mixture of black, 
white, and cinereous, but the former greatly predomi-^ 
nates; the ridge of the wing is cinereous, intermixed 
wdth dusky, all the rest of the coverts are black, seve* 
ral of the lower series slightly tipped with white ; the 
greater quills are elegantly marked, being white, with 
the exterior web and part of the inner one, close to the 
shaft, the tip and part of the inner margin, black, 
more or less tipped with spots of white ; the seconda- 
ries are more or less cinereous on the outer web, 
edged with dusky black towards the base, their tips 
and inner webs white ; the tertials are mostly black, 
with a slight edging of white at the tip ; the whole un- 
der parts are pure white ; the legs are yellowish, and 
rather more than an inch in length to the knee, and 
are bare a quarter of an inch above it.” 
It was shot on the banks of the Thames, near Chel- 
sea, and is in the collection of Mr Plasted, of that 
place. It is said to be a native of the southern parts 
of Siberia and Russia, and the shores of the Caspian 
sea. He describes it as being in its immature plu- 
mage, or in an intermediate state or first change be- 
tween the nestling and the adult state. 
Our figure is taken from a stuffed specimen of the 
same kind of bird, lent to us by Sir Hedworth Wil- 
liamson, Bart.: it was shot on the Durham coast in 
1816 . The bill is dusky, and measures from the tip to 
the brow one inch and an eighth ; the auriculars are 
tipped with black ; the tail is also tipped with the same, 
the two outer feathers the longest. The lower part of 
