478 



LARID.E. 



kct in the winter of 1838 ; this bird is now in my own col- 

 lection, and will be found described at the end of this sub- 

 ject. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns sent nie notice of one ob- 

 tained in Cambridgeshire. In the notes of Mr. Wm. Borrer, 

 .Tun., I find a record of three examples, all young birds, ob- 

 tained at Thornham in Norfolk, in the winter of 1836 ; and 

 I have heard from two or three other friends of specimens 

 killed at Yarmouth, and at Scarborough. On the other side 

 of the Channel this species visits the coasts of Germany and 

 Holland, M. Edmund de Selys Longchamps, in his Belgian 

 Fauna, mentions that both old and young specimens have 

 been taken at Dunkirk. M. Vieillot includes this species in 

 his Birds of France, and, in the winter of 181T, a single bird 

 strayed as far south as Genoa. 



Mr. Edmondston mentions having seen this species on the 

 shores of the Baltic, and Professor Nilsson includes it in his 

 Ornithology of Sweden, and of Scandinavia. It is said to be 

 common in Russia, and was found by naturalists as far north 

 as Nova Zembla. 



Captain W. Scoresby, in his account of the Arctic regions, 

 says of this Gull, " Larus imperiosus might perhaps be a 

 more characteristic name for this lordly bird, and would 

 correspond pretty nearly with the name, Burgomaster, or 

 Burgermeister, as generally given to it by the Dutch. It 

 may with propriety be called the chief magistrate of the 

 feathered tribe in the Spitzbergen regions, as none of its class 

 dares dispute its authority, when, with unhesitating superi- 

 ority, it descends on its prey, though in the possession of 

 another. The Burgomaster is not a numerous species, and 

 yet it is a general attendant on the whalc-fishers whenever 

 any spoils are to be obtained. It then hovers over the scene 

 of action, and, having marked out its morsel, descends upon 

 it and carries it off on the wing. On its descent, the most 

 dainty pieces must be relinquished, though in the grasp of 



