GrLL. NATATORES. LARUS. 499 



THIS large and powerful species was first noticed as a Periodical 

 winter visitant in Shetland in 1809, by LAURENCE EDMON- visltant - 

 STON, Esq., who afterwards published an interesting account 

 of its habits and distinguishing characters in the fourth vo- 

 lume of the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, to which pa- 

 per, from its length, I beg to refer my readers. Subsequent 

 observation has proved it to be not uncommon in that re- 

 mote district, both in the immature and perfect state, during 

 the winter ; but it regularly migrates on the advance of 

 spring to higher northern latitudes, for the purpose of re- 

 production. It occasionally extends its equatorial flight as 

 far to the southward as the Northumbrian coast, where seve- 

 ral have at different times come under my inspection in a 

 recent state. These, with the exception of one in the adult 

 winter plumage (now in my collection), have all been young 

 birds ; some, from their spotted and brown appearance, the 

 young of the year ; others, where the markings had become 

 fainter, and the ground of a purer white ; such as had un- 

 dergone one or perhaps two autumnal moultings. The 

 Glaucous Gull is pronounced by TEMMINCK to be the largest 

 of the tribe, but my own measurements of several indivi- 

 duals, with the testimony of Captain SABINE and other 

 writers who have described the species, shew that its average 

 dimensions in length and extent of wing are inferior to those 

 of the Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus). Its form 

 is perhaps thicker and more compact, and its weight may 

 sometimes exceed that of the other ; though I possess a spe- 

 cimen of the latter bird which weighed two ounces more than 

 any of the Glaucous Gulls that have come under my obser- 

 vation. By Dr RICHARDSON it is described as a common 

 species during the summer, in Greenland, Baffin's Bay, and 

 the Polar Seas, where it breeds upon the precipitous rocks 

 which line those coasts. Its eggs are stated to be of a pale Eggs. 

 purplish-grey, with scattered spots of umber-brown and sub- 

 dued lavender-purple. It is a bird of voracious appetite, 

 and preys not only upon fish and the smaller water-fowl, but 



