The Icelmid and Glaucous Gtcll i?i Ireland. 155 



boat, and being unable to resist the wish to obtain it I 

 brought it down by a shot from my cripple-stopper. This 

 was a lovely specimen in adult plumage, and the onl}^ trace 

 of immaturity about it was a small darkish spot on the end of 

 the bill. The irides of the eyes were exactly of the same yellow 

 colour as those of a pair of adult Herring Gulls shot the same 

 day. My next meeting with this gull was on the 17th of 

 January, 1878, when returning from Wigeon shooting at 

 Bartragh, I obsen^ed a j^oung Black-backed Gull on the 

 rocks near Scurmore feeding on some garbage left by the tide, 

 and just then a young Glaucous flying past, observing it 

 feeding, wheeled round to join in the feast, but was at once 

 driven off by the Black-back, and failing after several attempts 

 to obtain some of the food, flew off along the shore about 

 a hundred yards or so to where a dead dog was lying. It 

 began feeding on the carcase so greedily that it took no notice 

 of my punt until I had come close within shot, and then as 

 it made off, I knocked it over. It proved to be a very fine 

 specimen in the first year's plumage, and although quite as 

 large and as powerful in appearance as the Blacl^-back, was 

 too cowardly to fight for its share of the food. 



The last time I had the pleasure of seeing a Glaucous Gull 

 was in Februarj^ 1880, when I remarked one flying near the 

 landing-place on the shore here, having been attracted b}^ the 

 carcase of a bullock left by the tide ; here it remained for some 

 days in company with Black-backs, feeding on the carcase, 

 and although I made several attempts to shoot it, its excessive 

 watchfulness quite baffled me until the 27th, when I at last 

 succeeded in bringing it down as it flew off from the carcase. 

 This is the handsomest adult specimen of. the Glaucous Gull 

 I have ever seen, snowy white, with the exception of the pale 

 grey mantle and light yellow bill and irides, offering such a 

 pleasing contrast of colour to the pure white of the head and 

 neck. It is also one of the largest birds I have examined, 

 measuring nearly 29 inches in length, the carpus quite 18 

 inches, while the tips of the closed wings barely reached to the 

 end of the tail feathers. It weighed three and a-half pounds. 



The habits of the Glaucous and Iceland Gulls described by 

 Faber, as obser\'ed by him in Iceland (quoted in Yarrell's 3rd 

 vol.), coincide very much with what I have seen of these gulls, 

 the Glaucous being exactl}^ a Great Black-backed Gull in every- 

 thing except colour; its habits and disposition are the Same, 

 feeding on young or wounded birds, and on any carcases left on 

 the shore. The Iceland Gull's habits, on the other hand, are 

 those of the Herring and Common Gulls with which it asso- 

 ciates, often resting and feeding in fields, and following the 

 plough for worms turned up ; I never saw an Iceland Gull 

 feeding on carrion, nor approaching a carcase, although such 

 were on the shore during the visits of this gull to the estuary. 



B* 



