LARID/E. 



68l 



THE ICELAND GULL. 



Larus leucopterus, Faber. 



This is another species with whitish wings, and bears about the 

 same proportion to the Glaucous that the Lesser Black-backed does 

 to the Great Black-backed Gull. It was first recognized in the British 

 Islands by the late Dr. Lawrence Edmonston of Unst in Shet- 

 land, and is now known as a tolerably frequent, though irregular, 

 visitor to the sea-board of Scotland in cold weather; while the winter 

 of 1872-3, which was remarkable for an unusual advent of Glaucous 

 Gulls in the Firth of Forth, was still more so for the influx of 

 Iceland Gulls, many of them being adults. Although this bird is 

 naturally rarer on the shores of England, a large number reached 

 Cornwall in January and February of 1873, while in the winter of 

 1874-5, after long-continued gales, both young and old were plenti- 

 ful on the coast of South Devon. Mr. J. H. Salter says that in some 



3 t- 



