292 A HANDBOOK OF EUROPEAN BIRDS. 
Gulls, but are always BN ag eet their legs are paler in 
colour, and the light and dark markings of the plumage are 
more sharply defined than in the Herring Gull, with which 
alone they can possibly be confounded ” (Saunders). 
Distribution: Breeds in northern and temperate Europe, 
passing southward in winter to the Mediterranean as far as 
Greece and the Canaries. Breeds also in Greenland and 
Labrador, ranging as far south as Florida in winter. 
Habitat: The sea-coast almost exclusively. 
GLAUCOUS GULL. 
Larus glaucus /adr. 
Adult (Summer): £xtire plumage white, washed on back 
and wing-coverts with pale grey ; bill yellow, orange-red at the 
angle beneath ; legs and feet pinkish flesh-colour ; irides pale 
yellow. Length 32 inches; culmen 2'5; wing 19; tail 8°5 ; 
tarsus 2°8. Females often considerably smaller. 
Adult (Winter): Similar, but has the head and neck 
streaked with ashy-grey. 
Young: Above whitish, mixed with dull brown ; scapulars, 
innermost secondaries and tail-coverts transversely barred 
with pale brown, primaries and secondaries uniform pale 
yellowish-grey, tail yellowish-brown ; wings not reaching beyond 
end of tail; beneath dull white, more or less mottled with 
dull brown, the abdomen chiefly greyish-brown, bill pale brown, 
horn- coloured towards the point. 
Before the final moult into adult plumage an intermediate 
dress is assumed of entirely creamy-white or white. 
Distribution: Inhabits the Circumpolar region, seldom 
breeding south of the Arctic Circle, wanders southward in 
winter occasionally as far as the Mediterranean, to Japan, and 
to Long Island, in North America. 
Habitat: The sea-coast. 
ICELAND GULL. 
Larus leucopterus fader. 
Adult: Closely resembles Z. g/aucus, but may be distin- 
guished from that species by its slightly smaller size, slenderer 
