5C0 LARUS GLAUCUS. 



rinus, but inferior in extent of wing. It is difficult to decide 

 Avhich of the two species is largest ; nor is it, perhaps, a 

 matter of much importance. The plumage varies but 

 slightly in tint. 



Mal:E in Summer. — The bill is gamboge-yellow, with the 

 patch on the loAver mandible carmine, as are the edges of the 

 eyelids. The plumage is coloured as in winter, but the head 

 and neck are streaked with pale greyish-brown. 



Female in Summer. — The female is similar to the male. 



Habits. — This large and powerful Gull, the burgomaster 

 of seamen as well as authors, although both have sometimes 

 confounded it with the next species, is an inhabitant of the 

 most northern regions of the globe, breeding in the arctic 

 parts of America, from Labrador northward, in Iceland, and 

 Norway ; and advancing southward in winter, although to 

 no great extent. According to Dr. Richardson, " it is noto- 

 riously greedy and voracious, preying not only on fish and 

 small birds, but on carrion of every kind. One specimen 

 killed on Captain Koss's Expedition disgorged an Auk when 

 it was struck, and proved, on dissection, to have another in 

 its stomach. Unless when impelled to exertion by hunger, 

 it is rather a shy inactive bird, and has little of the clamor- 

 ousness of others of the genus." 



Dr. Edmondston, who first introduced it to notice as a 

 British bird, having obtained in Shetland a specimen of the 

 young in the autumn of 1809, and another in 1814, wdiich he 

 presented to Mr. Bullock, and subsequently several more, 

 supposing it to be not previously described, proposed naming 

 it the Iceland Gull, Larus islandicus. This was in March, 

 1821, and in that month of the following year he described 

 an adult individual in winter plumage, also obtained in 

 Shetland, Avhere, as he informs us, the species occurs during 

 the cold season, in large flocks, composed of both old and 

 young, although, generally speaking, it is rare. " Its favourite 

 resorts are the estuaries of the more exposed bays, a few 

 miles off the land, where it is often found assiduously attending 



