NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 203 



our guns, but, with a powerful glass, we readily made out the 

 species. We gave them a parting salute, and the rising of that 

 large flock on wing, was one of the best bird-sights I have enjoyed 

 I may say for many years. 



So much, then, for the excursions, so far as they have gone. 

 Let me now, in a few words, advert to the birds we obtained, and 

 which you have submitted to your inspection. 



To begin with the Glaucous Gull or Burgomaster : — I may 

 state that the earliest account of the bird (which is accompanied 

 by a roughly executed figure) appears to be that given by Fred. 

 Martens, in his "Voyage to Spitzbergen," published in 1671. 

 " The Burgermeister," says this quaint writer, " is the biggest of 

 all the birds of Spitzbergen; wherefore his name is given him, as 

 being the chief of them. His bill is crooked, of a yellow colour, 

 narrow and thick ; his under-bill is somewhat rising or knobby at 

 the point or end, a great deal more than the Kutge-chefs, which 

 looketh very pretty, as if he had a cherry in his mouth ; he hath 

 longish nostrils, and a red ring about his eyes \ he hath but three 

 claws, of a grey colour ; his legs are grey, and not quite so long as 

 those of a stork, yet he is almost equally big with him. His tail 

 is broad like a fan, and white, which is chiefly to be understood of 

 these birds when they fly. His wings are of a pale colour, and so 

 is all the back, but Ms wings are white at the tip, and so is the 

 whole body." In later times, though the Glaucous Gull was well 

 known to Brunnich in 1764, and subsequently to Gmelin and 

 Fabricius, it was only first recognised as a British bird by the late 

 Dr Edmondston of Shetland, who sent a specimen to Mr Bullock in 

 1814, and afterwards described its habits, as observed by himself, 

 in the memoirs of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh. Since 

 that time it has occurred sparingly on our coasts as a winter 

 visitant, though it is still regarded by English collectors as a 

 somewhat rare bird. I have for some years, however, entertained 

 the idea that it is a regular migrant as far as the estuary of the 

 Forth. On the Aberdeenshire coast it was observed two years 

 ago in considerable numbers, and a correspondent there informed 

 me that he never visited the shore during the winter without seeing 

 a number. I had myself killed stray examples thirty years ago on 

 the coast of East Lothian j and in the Outer Hebrides small flocks 

 have of late years been seen frequenting the sounds which separate 

 the islands of Benbecula and the two Uists. 



