From September to the beginning of April, while in their
winter-plumage, Faber says, they have grey .spots on their
head and neck.
Mr. Mitchell’s young bird has the bill pale yellow at tl£§
base, the anterior half homy black; the irides dark brown;
head and meek dull,white, clouded with pale ash-brown ; the
back the same colour; secondaries, tertians, and all the wing-
coverts dull whiter marked transversely with, pale brown
angular streaks; primaries whiteV tail- coverts, and tail-feathers
greyish-white* the latter::'market! across: with broadish 5M e s -óf
pale brown, which'arè more numerous about thé Mse s than
towards the end; chin-dull white; 'neck,'breast, .belly, and
all the under surface of thé body,'dull white, Streaked transversely
with pale'brown4egs yellowish-brown.
The whole length of this .specimen eighteenririchiP»'' From
the carpal joint to the end of the longest i.quilhfeathér .“fifteen
inches and' a half'; the ends of thef.wings, reacKirig'two irichls
beyond the tail.
Faber mentions, that the young. Bird before becoming
matured in colour méaSüreS twenty inches; and three-quarters
in length ; that the spots on the plumage aredost by degreed,
and in the fourth summer they have the same colour as the
old birds, i
KATATORES. LARIDÆ.
TI1E LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL.
Larus ———±L Lisser, Black-backed Gull,
„ argenfdfus, ,, ' „ ,, *
PE|fS* Brit. ZcwJ. Vÿt. ii. p. 178.
M o n t . Orajtb. Diet. ■
B e w ic k ,TSrit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 227.
Fl e m . Brit. Ad. p. 140..
S e l b y , Brit. Qrnith. vol. ii. p. 509.
J e n y n s , Brit. Vert. p. 277.
G o u l d , Birds of Europe, pt. xiv.
T e m m . Man. d’Ornith. vpl. ii. p. 767.
„ . Y'ellow-legged
.»»’ Lesser BlàcK-baqked
t,. ‘ ,, - Goéland Ji pieds j aimes,
T h e L e s s e r B l a c k - b a c k e d G u l l was first noticed as a
British bird. breeding at Anglesey, by Pennant, though he