590 LARID^. 



retains its habit of driving away all intruders. Its 

 eggs are prized as dainties, being thought to resemble 

 Plover's eggs. 



GLAUCOUS GULL, OR BURGOMASTER 



LARUS GLAUCUS. 



General plumage white ; back and wings bluish grey ; tail and terminal 

 portion of the qxiills white ; bill strong, yellow ; legs livid flesh-colour. 

 Young mottled with white, grey, and light brown ; shafts of the quills 

 white ; in other respects like the last, but the bill is longer and stouter. 

 Length twenty-nine inches ; breadth five feet two inches. Eggs as in the 

 last, but of a greener hue. 



The Glaucous Gull, a large, handsome, and powerful bird, 

 resembles in many of its habits the species last described, 

 but it has not been known to breed in even the most 

 northerly of the British Isles. It pays occasional visits 

 to our shores in autumn, and returns to its Arctic 

 home early in spring. A few specimens only have been 

 shot in the southern portion of the island, and no large 

 number in Scotland; but in the neighbourhood of the 

 whale fishery it is common enough. It is very voracious, 

 and not only eats fish, whether dead or alive, and shares 

 with the whale-fisher in his booty, but pursues other sea- 

 fowl, compels them to disgorge their prey, robs them of 

 their eggs, and, if they resist, kills and devours them.* 

 In short, it is the very tyrant of the Arctic Ocean. Its 

 predatory habits were noticed by the early navigators in 

 these waters, who gave it the name of Burgomaster ; but 

 as no accurate description of the bird was brought home, 

 and as some of our other large Gulls are open to a charge 

 of similar rapacity, the name was naturally transferred 

 by Willughby to another species, which he calls the 

 Wagell (probably the Great Black-backed Gull in imma- 

 ture plumage). This was in 1676. A hundred years 



* A specimen recently shot in Norfolk was found to contain a 

 full-grown Golden Plover entire. 



