NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 205 



Macgillivray's measurements are : 



Male, Length, 30; wing, 19 J; breadth, 62 inches. 



Female, „ 28 — ^ „ 60 „ 



Young bird, „ 26; wing, 18 J inches. 

 2d Winter, „ 27 „ 18i „ 

 3d Winter, „ 29 „ 19i „ 

 — a result showing greater dimensions as the bird gets older. As 

 variations, he mentions that the largest he examined was 30 inches 

 in length, and the smallest 27 inches. 



Fleming's figures are : ' , 



Length, 30 ; breadth, 63 inches. 

 Selby gives no measurements but those of the bill, which I find 

 to be even more inconstant than those of the body. 

 Yarrell gives the length as 32 or 33 ; wing, 19 inches. 

 II. Length, 27 J ; wing, 17J inches. 



Eichardson and Swainson, in " Faun. Bor. Amer." : 

 Length, 29; wing, from flexure, 19 inches. 



Audubon, ''Orn. Biog.," Yol. v., p. 61 : 



Length, 30; wing, from flexure, 19 J inches. 



Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence. Birds of North Amer. : 

 Length, 30; wing, 19 J; alar extent, 60 inches. 



The flight of this gull is soft, sedate, and owl-like, and easily 

 distinguished from that of the Great Black-backed Gull or the 

 Iceland Gull. The birds we saw were chiefly flying along the 

 muddy shores, and not over the water like the Kittiwakes. One 

 which passed ]Mr Thomson and myself, twice over stooped in its 

 flidit and lifted a dead Kittiwake. which it carried to a consider- 

 able height in the air and then dropped. I have no doubt but 

 that for our presence it would have taken it to the embankment 

 and devoured it bodily. The whole of the specimens — thirteen in 

 number — were extremely fat, but nothing was found in any of 

 their stomachs, except a few remains of fish bones and scales. The 

 same remark applies to other four skinned at the same time. I 

 am inclined to think they live largely on carrion. On the other 

 hand, every Kittiwake we shot was crammed full of Garvies. 



AYhen satisfied, and during the time the Kittiwakes and other 

 smaller gulls are following the Garvies back to Queensferry at low 

 tide, the Glaucous, Great Black-backed, and, I am inclined to 

 think, the Iceland Gulls, remain roosting on the mud-flats or in 



