GLAUCOUS GULL. 639 



portions of Norway and Russia ; and more abundantly in 

 Novaya Zemlya, and along the entire coast of Arctic Siberia 

 to Bering Straits. In winter it occurs not unfrequently on 

 the coasts of northern and teraperate Europe, wandering 

 as far south as to the Straits of Gibraltar. That it occa- 

 sionally enters the Mediterranean is shown by the fact that 

 two examples have been obtained in Liguria ; M. Alleon 

 procured it on the Black Sea ; and it has also been killed in 

 Bohemia, and other inland places. Returning to its summer 

 habitat, w-e find this Gull generally distributed in Spitsbergen ; 

 it is common and resident in Iceland ; and is by far the most 

 numerous of the larger species found in Greenland, whence 

 its range extends, up to 82^° N. lat., throughout the entire 

 Arctic regions of America as far as Bering Sea. On the east 

 side it straggles in winter as far as the Middle States ; and, 

 in the North Pacific, to the southern portions of Alaska ; 

 whilst, on the Asiatic side, it ranges along the coast of 

 Kamtschatka to the Kuril Islands, and occasionally to 

 Hakodate, Japan, where Captain Blakiston obtained imma- 

 ture specimens. It necessarily abandons the high Arctic 

 regions in September, and its return to the extreme north 

 does not take place until June. 



On the North Pacific coasts from America to Kamtschatka, 

 straggling to Japan in winter, is found a distinct species, 

 Larus glaucescens, which has the primaries faintly chequered 

 with grey, giving the bird the appearance of a washed-out 

 Herring Gull. A supposed new species from Cumberland 

 Sound, on the east side, has lately been described by the 

 name of L. kumlieni. 



Scoresby, in his account of the Arctic Ptegions, says of the 

 Glaucous Gull, ''Larus iinperiosus might perhaps be a more 

 characteristic name for this lordly bird, and would corre- 

 spond pretty nearly with the name, Burgomaster or Burger- 

 meister, as generally given to it by the Dutch. It may wdth 

 propriety be called the chief magistrate of the feathered tribe 

 in the Spitsbergen regions, as none of its class dare dispute 

 its authority, when, with unhesitating superiority, it descends 

 on its prey, though in the possession of another. The 



