586 LARID^. 



a broken line from two to three miles from the shore, and 

 the young birds, distinguished by their darker plumage, in 

 another line, about a mile nearer the land. When at- 

 tending on shoals of herrings and other small fish, an 

 occupation in which they are most sedulous, old and 

 young associate, and are accompanied by Gannets, Kitti- 

 wakes, Willocks, Cormorants, Auks, Puffins, and, indeed, 

 by all the larger sea-birds which frequent the waters. On 

 these occasions, they are of great service to fishermen, by 

 indicating the position of the shoals. 



THE ICELAND GULL. 



LARUS ICELANDICUS. 



Wings reaching a little beyond the tail ; back and upper wing-coverts pale blue ; 

 rest of the plumage white, streaked on the head with grey ; bill yellow ; irides 

 pale yellow ; feet deep flesh-colour. Young hirda pale yellowish grey, barred 

 and mottled with brown ; bill pale flesh-colour, having dark horn-colour 

 towards the tip ; feet pale flesh-colour. Length twenty-two inches. 



The Iceland Gull, called also by Yarrell the "Lesser 

 Wliite-winged Gull," to distinguish it from the Glaucous 

 Gull, which it closely resembles in the colour of its plum- 

 age, is a northern bird, intermediate in size between the 

 Common Gull and the Herring Gull. It is so rare a 

 visitor to British seas that few oj^portunities have offered 

 themselves of observing its habits in warm localities. In 

 the Arctic regions it is abundant, and is of much service 

 to seal-shooters and cod-fishers by hovering over the spots 

 where the small fish are driven to the surface in their 

 eff'orts to escape from their pursuers. It is fearless of 

 man, and follows the fishing-boats for the sake of picking 

 up off'al. 



