460 LARID/E. 



are drifted many miles. Its manners differ from those of the 

 Glaucous Gull, which has the habits of the Great Black- 

 backed Gull, and moves with more energy. The nature of 

 the White-winged Gull more resembles that of the Herring 

 Gull ; its deportment and flight are more graceful ; it hovers 

 over its prey, is somewhat greedy, always active, and is not 

 afraid to fight Avith equal, or superior, antagonists for its food. 

 My manuscript was finished before I knew that this Gidl had 

 been mentioned by any author. Accidentally I had lent to 

 me Sabine'^s Memoir of the Birds of Greenland, and found 

 therein, under the incorrect name of Larus argentatus, men- 

 tion of a Gull which bore a great resemblance to my Larus 

 hucopterus. Perhaps this bird when it leaves this island in 

 May goes to Hudson's Bay in order to breed. 



Besides three or more examples of this bird obtained in 

 Shetland by Lawrence Edmonston, Esq., to whom we are 

 indebted for the first notice of this species as a winter visiter 

 to Britain, Professor Macgillivray has noticed one specimen 

 taken in Orkney, and now in the Edinburgh IMuseum. This 

 species has also been taken twice in Ireland; and Mr. Wm. 

 Thompson has recorded in the Magazine of Natural History, 

 vol. xi. p. 18, a notice of the habits of this species as observed 

 on the south-west coast of Scotland, Avhich, as coinciding with 

 the remarks of Fabcr in Iceland, are interesting. The notice 

 is as follows : — " At the end of last year, 1836, three Gulls, 

 of the same kind, made their appearance on the shore where 

 the fishermen reside. Two of them were shot in the spring, 

 and the one sent you, in June. As they frequented the 

 fishing-boats, the men used to supply them with fish ; and in 

 a short time they became quite familiar ; took whatever was 

 thrown to them, but would not allow themselves to be caught. 

 They were never observed to go far from the place where 

 they were first seen. The person who gave me this informa- 

 tion, shot the two in the spring; and says, that every winter 



