ICELAND-GULL 181 



These birds may have reached us by the west coast of Great Britain, 

 as some usually migrate along the west coast of Scotland ; and Dr. 

 Salter says that in some winters it is not rare along the coast of 

 Cardigan Bay. Thus, in January and February 1892, it was observed 

 in some numbers on the north and west coasts of Scotland, and this 

 migration extended along the shores of North Ireland, where it had 

 not previously been noticed in any numbers, though since that date it 

 seems to have occurred on many occasions. 



On the way north an occasional straggler may be met with late in 

 the spring, but though recorded from the Humber as late as April 18, 

 the great bulk of our winter guests leave the Shetlands towards 

 the end of March. In Iceland they stay later, and Faber says that 

 though their numbers decreased towards the end of April, they 

 had not all disappeared till the end of May. To some extent their 

 movements here are regulated by the ice, for in the spring of 1821, 

 when the fjords of the northern coast were choked by drift ice from 

 Greenland, they stayed on the south coast till the middle of May, and 

 then left it entirely, to proceed to their breeding-haunts. When we 

 come to trace out the breeding-range of this species, at first sight 

 it appears to be wholly a nearctic breeding species. It is true 

 that it ranges in winter to Norway and Finland, and von Pelzeln 

 identified a specimen from Novaya Zemlya, while Middendorff 

 thought that he recognised it on the Taimyr, but Saunders ascribed 

 all the Bering Sea and North Pacific records to the glaucous-gull. 

 On the other hand, we know that there is a strong colony on Jan 

 Mayen, and that it breeds in great numbers in Greenland, while the 

 principal localities in Arctic America where it has been found nesting 

 are given in the " Classified Notes." But outside this area, which 

 undoubtedly represents the chief breeding-grounds of this species, 

 there is some evidence that it occurs sporadically in small numbers 

 over a much wider area. Thus E. W. Nelson states that it ranges 

 not only across Bering Straits, but along the east coast of Arctic 

 Siberia to Ice Cape and Wrangel Island, and Bunge met with it on 



