a yellowish tinge. This species takes three years in arriving
at its adult plumage, and breeds when all but four years old.
The young in down are similar tofbbse of-the Herring Gull.
In confinement a female Lesser Black-backed - Gull has
been known to pair with a male Herring Gull, and on the
offspring of this union Mr. Cecil Smith writes as“follows
“ The hybrid between these two'Gulls mentioned 'dfy -Vue
at p. 450 of * The Zoologist ’ for T881-* as haying been feed
in my pond in May, 1880, and allowed' tb 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" ne&rïf reached
ifes adult plumage -that I think it worth while tb givfe a short
description o f‘it, as I have lately had a -good many-Op'^Or-
tuhitiesof looking at it, and am always - afraid-each visit may
he its last, as it mightmiet with ian- accident 'óü en© ofv its
journeys to and from the Bristol Channel/ though as a- rule
it dies very high and quite out of shfefópl The wing-coverts
and mantle appear now to have assumed th&ir-fully-'adult
colouring/ there being hone Of the brown markings^f ■ thö
immature plumage left. “'The- quills, however, arembt 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 sol The-’ wing-coVetts - and mantle-
are very pale indeed'-for a Blaek-ba'ck; thought much" too
dark for a Herring Gull. The legs "are flesh-Oolobr/ like
the Herring Gull, if • anything a little brighter kud^more
highly coloured, now showing-nb sign of the yellow ol^M
Lesser Black-back.' Any one shooting'-'it skd • describing it
might say it was a -pale Lesser Black-back with x’the^fa'gs
and feet coloured lifeejthose of ^Herring Gully "Blit I do neft
think any one would-speak of i t ’as a dark Herring Gull”
(Zool. 1883, p. 174). i This-hird was shot in the following
May, and preserved.
*' Oyiag to -it.be inversion of $ figure', tfel year in . which" th e 1 Lesser
baefeedjöc^l was taken freon the nest was printed 18JShinstead of 18J.&/.-If hot
ecr rented,■‘-it would appear t'hat 'thisxlffecies-Tiad*hr èd*in' its first year. *
GA VIjE, LARIDM.
; Laiius^marinus, Linnaeus.*
I THjfG^REAT BL^^-Bf GKED^è-ÜLL.
■tLjirus' warinys.. k
T h e G §Ê a? B lack-b acked . G tjll; I h q f g h s e e n th r o u g h o u t
the year^on, yarious parts C[f pur coast, is nqt very numerqps
as.* a., npb^s^.- and^s frequenf#i0^erye^;fqj die solitary., or in
pairs only. l)r. Turner, wrote bn British ornithology-
morA than - thfqa h u n d r^ je a ts 'agp^c^jllS'.fhiSf -Gull i a ;C$b ;
and ffvJtliis, name M is »||§§known on th,e flat shp|es^qf
Kent and 3ggsqx, ayithe j^outli of :thp Thames* where this
• *, Syst. -Nat. Ed. 13/i. p;*3a|it766). |