132 THE GULLS 



ICELAND-GULL [Larus leitcopterus Faber. French, go'dand leucoptere ; 

 German, Polar-M&ve]. 



1. Description. The Iceland-gull is to be regarded as a miniature of the 

 glaucous-gull, but has relatively longer wings. It is to be distinguished from it 

 at all stages of growth by its greatly inferior size and the coloration of the orbital 

 ring and legs and toes, which are flesh-coloured. (PL 105.) Length 22 in. [558-80 

 mm.]. The beak is yellow with a red spot at the angle or gonys. [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. The breeding-range of this gull includes Jan Mayen 

 Island, Greenland, where it is common, and Arctic America. Dresser gives the 

 following localities : Felix Harbour, Boothia (Ross), Melville Island, Franklin Bay 

 (MacFarlane), Mackenzie Bay (Reed) and Cambridge Bay, Victoria Land (Collin- 

 son), and also on the Yukon (Nelson). Saunders, however, thinks that all records 

 from the North Pacific and Bering Sea refer to the glaucous-gull. It is said also 

 to have bred on Novaya Zemlya. (See p. 182.) Its winter range includes Iceland, 

 the northern seas of the British Isles, and the North Sea, while occasionally it 

 strays to the Baltic and the coasts of western France, and has once been recorded 

 from the Adriatic. In North America it has been recorded regularly on Lake 

 Michigan, and casually at Boston (42^- ), Nebraska, and Maryland. [F. o. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A winter visitor of tolerably regular occurrence on the 

 Scottish coasts, but less frequent on the southern and western shores of the British 

 Isles. The numbers that visit us are rather variable : winters in which the 

 birds have been unusually numerous in one part or another are 1872-73, 1874-75, 

 and 1891-92. Most of the visitors are usually immature birds. An Iceland-gull 

 has been recorded from Yorkshire as late as April 18 (cf. Saunders, III. Man. B. B., 

 2nd ed., 1899, p. 681). [A. L. T.] 



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



5. Food. Principally fish, live or dead, according to Naumann (Vogel 

 Mitteleuropas, xi. 278). It appears, however, to be, like its congeners, practically 

 omnivorous (Saxby, Birds of Shetland, p. 337; Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 444). 

 [F. B. K.] 



KIT T I WAKE [Rissa tridactyla (Linnaeus). Sprat-mew (Kent), hacket, hack- 

 let (Devon), kittick (Orkneys), waeg (Shetlands), tarrock (juv.). French, 

 mouette tridactyle ; German, Dreizehen-Move ; Italian, gabbiano terragnola]. 



i. Description. In the kittiwake the hind-toe is either vestigial or absent, 

 whereby it is distinguished from all other gulls. It may at once be distinguished 



