PKELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 131 



the feathers being faintly mottled with brownish ash. The primaries are of a 

 dull creamy white, with a greyish tinge, the innermost tipped with white, and with 

 subterminal arrowheaded markings of brownish ash. Tail dull white, heavily 

 marbled with pale brownish ash. As the bird nears maturity the markings 

 disappear and the cream colour fades to white, so that in fourth year birds the 

 whole plumage is for a short time pure white. Birds in this stage were regarded 

 as representing a distinct species, Larus hutchinsi. The young in down has the 

 head dull white, with dusky spots on the crown, and lines and spots of the 

 same hue on the sides of the head. The rest of the upper parts are pale ashy 

 brown, with obscure lines of darker brown along the back and on the elbow ; 

 under parts white, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. This is a circumpolar species, breeding in the high north of 

 both Old and New Worlds. Its nearest breeding-places to our shores are Iceland, 

 Jan Mayen, Spitzbergen, Franz-Josef Land, the Murman coast, Kanin Peninsula, 

 Kolguev, Petchora delta, Waigatz, and Novaya Zemlya. In Asia it breeds along 

 the north of Siberia, and on the New Siberia Islands eastward to Tchukchi-land. 

 In the Western Hemisphere it breeds commonly in Greenland, and sparingly along 

 the coast of Labrador south to Newfoundland, as well as on the shores of Hudson's 

 Bay and the Nearctic Archipelago, but in Bering Sea and Alaska it is replaced by the 

 Point Barrow or western glaucous-gull, L. barrovianus Bidgway. Its winter range 

 normally extends to the northern part of our islands, but exceptionally it ranges 

 south to the Straits of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean and Black Seas in Europe, and 

 the Caspian and Japanese Seas in Asia, while in N. America it has been recorded 

 in winter from Florida, Texas, and the Mississippi valley, and on the Pacific side 

 from California. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A winter visitor. It is of regular occurrence on our northern 

 shores, but always rare in Ireland and on the south and west of England. In severe 

 winters it is more abundant; a notable season was that of 1871-72 (cf. Harvie-Brown, 

 Fauna of Tay Basin and Strathmore, p. 339). Occasional examples remain in 

 Shetland till June, but do not breed there. Over fifty have been seen together in 

 Orkney in December (cf. Annals Scot. Nat. Hist., 1902, p. 197). [A. L. x.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Does not breed in the British Islands. [F. c. B. J.] 



5. Food. The species, like its congeners, is omnivorous (see p. 125). 

 [F. B. K.] 



