syi** ^rvCmiAjr'.^o^uty c l7t>£. 7 /(, / 7 i> 
BIRDS. * + 
Hybrid between the Lesser Black-back and Herring Gulls.—The 
hybrid between these two gulls mentioned by me at p. 450 of ‘ The 
Zoologist’ for 1881 as having been bred in my pond in May, 1880, and 
allowed to fly, has from that time to the present paid me frequent visits, 
sometimes staying for two or three days together, sometimes leaving 
immediately after feeding-time, and sometimes not making its appearance 
for weeks together. It has now so nearly reached its adult plumage that I 
. think it worth while to give a short description of it, as I have lately had a 
good many opportunities of looking at it, and am always afraid each visit 
may be its last, as it might meet with an accident on one of its journeys to 
and from the Bristol Channel, though as a rule it flies, very high and quite 
out of shot. The wing-coverts, and mantle appear now to have assumed 
their fully adult colouring, there being none of the brown markings of the 
immature plumage left. The quills, however, are not those of the adult 
bird, though I should think after another moult they, as well as the tail- 
feathers, which still have a few brown markings left, would be so. The 
wing-coverts and mantle are very pale indeed for a Black-back, though 
much too dark for a Herring Gull. The legs are flesh-colour like the 
Herring Gull, if anything a little brighter and more highly coloured, now 
showing no sign of the yellow of the Lesser Black-back. Any one 
shooting it and describing it might say it was a pale Lesser Black-back 
with the legs and feet coloured like those of a Herring Gull, but I do not 
think anyone would speak of it as a dark Herring Gull. The legs and 
feet are both the same colour, not like those mentioned at p. 70 of ‘ The 
Zoologist ’ for 1882 as one yellow and one pale flesh-colour. With regard 
to the remarks there made, I perfectly agree with my friend Mr. Howard 
Saunders that that bird is not a hybrid between Larus fuscus and Larus 
marinus. I believe these two gulls would never cross under any circum¬ 
stances. But I do not go so far as to say, “ I do not believe in hybrid 
gulls in a wild state,” for I do believe that the Herring Gull and the Lesser 
Black-back would cross occasionally in a wild state, seeing the readiness 
with which they do so in captivity. I think an odd pair, a male of one 
and a female of the other, would breed without any difficulty, except, 
perhaps, the difficulty of finding a breeding-place where they would be free 
from persecution, for I do not think they would be allowed at a breeding 
station of either Herring Gulls or Lesser Black-backs. The bird above 
mentioned differs materially from Larus affinis, at least according to Mr. 
Dresser’s description, for he describes Larus affinis as having the legs and / 
feet yellow.— Cecil Smith (Bishop’s Lydeard, Taunton). 
* 
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