COMES ati 
frequently seen at the Zoo. The glaucous gull has a 
paler plumage. The gulls are a group of birds found 
more or less everywhere, and are of a fairly uniform 
coloration. The prevalent hues are grey, black and 
white, mingled in a way that everybody must have 
noted ; a good many varieties of gull, comprising the 
more common forms, are always on view in their own 
special pond, and also in other enclosures at the Zoo. 
An exceptionally coloured gull is the beautiful ivory 
gull (Pagophila eburnea), which is brilliant white with 
black legs. It is an occasional visitant to our shores, 
and, though not willingly, to our Zoo. The greys and 
whites of the gulls is believed to assist in rendering the 
bird obscure on account of a harmony with frothing 
waves, over the tops of which the gull skims, or on the 
tops of which it rides. This may be so; but the young 
gull has a different plumage, which lasts for a long time, — 
and is of aspeckled brown. What is sauce for the goose 
ought to be sauce for the gosling ; if the old bird needs 
this protection of invisibility, it might be thought that 
the young needed it more, or at least as much. But 
the colour of the young gull is not without significance 
if we bear in mind those close allies of the gulls,the skuas. 
Of these birds also examples are fairly certain to be 
visible in one or other of the enclosures devoted to birds. 
The prevailing hue of the skuas is brown. It is from 
these birds rather than from the gulls perhaps that the 
slang term “gull” is derived. For the skuas, though 
powerful enough and agile enough to do their fishing 
and food collecting generally for themselves, prefer to 
worry and harass some other fishing bird, until they 
make it drop its recently captured prey in sheer ner- 
vousness or fright. The older ornithologists, unduly 
impressed by webbed feet, put the gull near to the ducks 
and other aquatic birds. They have, however, nothing 
in common structurally except these webbed toes. 
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