THE GULL. 153 
third year that the young birds acquire the same colour as 
the old. 
The Black and White Gull is by far the largest of all the 
Gull kind, as it generally weighs upwards of four pounds, 
and is twenty-five or twenty -six inches from the point of 
the bill to the end of the tail; and from the tip of each 
wing, when extended, five feet and several inches. The bill 
appears compressed sideways, being more than three inches 
long, and hooked towards the end, like the rest of this 
kind, of a sort of orange colour; the nostrils are of an 
oblong form ; the mouth is wide, with a long tongue and 
very open gullet. The irides of the eyes are of a very 
delightful red. The wings and the middle of the back are 
black, only the tips of the covert and quill-feathers are 
white. The head, breast, tail, and other parts of the body 
are likewise white. The tail is near six inches long, the 
legs and feet are flesh-coloured, and the claws black. There 
are about twenty varieties of this tribe, which are all 
distinguished by an angular knob on the chap. 
Gulls are found in great plenty in every place ; but it is 
chiefly round our rockiest shores, that they are seen in the 
greatest abundance ; it is there that the Gull breeds and 
brings up its young ; it is there that millions of them are 
heard screaming with discordant notes for months together. 
These birds, like all others of the rapacious kind, lay but 
few eggs ; and hence, in many places, their number is daily 
seen to diminish. The lessening of so many rapacious 
