ICELAND-GULL 179 



notes which are uttered on the wing are " kuija, kuija, kija" or a short 

 " kaea kaea." 1 



Towards the end of October the breeding-grounds in Spitzbergen 

 are forsaken. Arnold Pike noted flocks for the last time on Amster- 

 dam Island on October 13, 1888, 2 and Bunge saw one or two as late 

 as October 26 and 27 ; but by the beginning of November the last 

 burgomaster has left the ice-bound coast behind him, and winged his 

 way southward to the open sea and sheltered fjords of Iceland and 

 the Fseroes, or the voes and firths of the Shetlands. The Austro- 

 Hungarian expedition to Jan Mayen, however, had a somewhat 

 different experience, and both old and young birds were seen as long 

 as the sea was free from ice, i.e. till December, while a young bird was 

 shot at sea on January 22, 1883, and again on March 17. 3 



ICELAND-GULL 



[F. C. R. JOURDAIN] 



The material available for the life-history of this gull is at present 

 far from complete, chiefly because most of those who have had 

 opportunities of observing it at home have contented themselves with 

 remarking that in its habits it resembles the glaucous-gull. Very 

 probably this is the case, but in studying one cannot afford to take 

 anything for granted, and it may be that closer investigation will 

 reveal essential points of divergence, which in the course of time have 

 resulted in the permanent differentiation of the two species. 



In size the Iceland-gull is decidedly a smaller bird than the 

 glaucous, but the wings are much longer in proportion. Saxby says 

 that on the wing it can be recognised at any distance by its long and 

 pointed white wings, and by a peculiar roundness of body. The flight, 

 too, as might be expected, is more airy and buoyant, and not so owl- 



1 Le Roi, Avifauna Spitzbergensis, p. 192. 2 Chapman, Wild Norivay, p. 344. 



3 Zoologist, 1890, 49. 



