GLAUCOUS GULL. 307 



every autumn and winter ; stray birds have with- 

 in the last fifteen years been obtained at the same 

 season, in several of the English counties, in Scot- 

 land, and in Ireland. On the Continent it also 

 occurs accidentally, and is recorded by the northern 

 ornithologists. We possess a specimen killed in 

 winter in the Firth of Forth, and for the last two 

 winters a gull with white wings has occasionally 

 travelled up and down the river Annan for fifteen 

 miles, but has been so shy as to bafHe all endea- 

 vours to procure it. In Shetland, Mr, Edmondstone 

 remarks, that when allured by carrion, it " enters 

 the bays and boldly ventures inland." It is an 

 Arctic bird, however, in its breeding habits, has 

 been observed by nearly all the northern voyagers, 

 and its habits described by several of them ; these 

 are said to be extremely voracious, and one dis- 

 gorged a little auk when struck by shot, a second 

 being found in the stomach of the same bird on dis- 

 section. It breeds on the projecting ledges of rocks, 

 but Captain Scorseby found the eggs on the coast of 

 Spitzbergen, deposited in the same way as those of 

 the tern, on the shingle above high-water mark. 



The specimen alluded to as killed in the Firth of 

 Forth has the head, neck and under parts white, 

 clouded with pale clove-brown, that colour on the 

 crown and cheeks assuming the form of streaks; 

 mantle and wings pearl grey, secondaries and sca- 

 pulars with white tips, quills for two or three inches 

 at the .tips nearly pure white ; tail and upper covers 

 white, the former clouded with clove-brown on the 



