598 LARID^J. 



in winter. If it swam near the shore, and there, as if 

 anxious, moved along with its feathers puffed out, then I 

 knew that on the following day storms and snow were to 

 be expected. In fine weather it soared high in the air. 

 They often sit by hundreds on a piece of ice, and in that 

 way are drifted many Jniles. Its manners differ from 

 those of the Glaucous Gull, which has the habits of the 

 Great Black -backed Gull, and moves with more energy. 

 The nature of the White-winged Gull more resembles that 

 of the Herring Gull ; its deportment and flight are more 

 graceful; it hovers over its prey, is somewhat greedy, 

 always active, and is not afraid to fight with equal, or 

 superior antagonists for its food. My manuscript was 

 finished before I knew that this Gull had been men- 

 tioned by any author. Accidentally I had lent to me 

 Sabine's Memoir of the Birds of Greenland, and found 

 therein, under the incorrect name of Larus argentatus, 

 mention of a Gull which bore a great resemblance to 

 my Larus leucopterus. Perhaps this bird, when it leaves 

 this island in May, goes to Hudson's Bay in order to 

 breed. 



Besides three or more examples of this bird obtained 

 in Shetland by Lawrence Edmonston, Esq., to whom we 

 are indebted for the first notice of this species as a winter 

 visitor to Britain, Professor Macgillivray has noticed one 

 specimen taken in Orkney, and now in the Edinburgh 

 Museum. This species has also been taken twice in 

 Ireland; and Mr. Wm. Thompson has recorded in the 

 Magazine of Natural History, vol. xi. p. 18, a notice of 

 the habits of this species as observed on the south-west 

 coast of Scotland, which, as coinciding with the remarks 

 of Faber in Iceland, are interesting. The notice is as 

 follows: "At the end of last year, 1836, three Gulls, 

 of the same kind, made their appearance on the shore 



