ICELAND GULL. 577 



greater numbers. It is not unfrequently met with at 

 the Shetland Islands in the winter season, and may there- 

 fore he added to our catalogue of British Birds." Mr. 

 Auduhon says it is not rare in winter from Nova Scotia 

 to New York. I have not found any description or figure 

 of the egg. 



Professor Nilsson includes this species in his Fauna of 

 Scandinavia, and it is found at the Faroe Islands. 



The substance of Faber*s remarks on this species may be 

 thus given : In size between Larus canus, the Common 

 Gull, and Larus argentatus, the Herring Gull. This is the 

 only Gull that passes the winter in Iceland without breed- 

 ing there in summer. It must, like Larus eburneus, the 

 Ivory Gull, breed in the higher northern regions, and come to 

 Iceland in winter as a bird of passage. I have travelled 

 over most of the coast of the island, but have never found 

 its breeding-place. There was no L. leucopterus on the 

 rocks of Faxe or Bredebugt towards the west, where L. 

 ylaucus breeds in large colonies. A few days after the 

 middle of September, the first specimens, both old and 

 young, make* their appearance on the coast of Iceland, con- 

 fining themselves to the northern parts, among the small 

 inlets of which great numbers pass the winter. When 

 I lived on the innermost of the small fiords on the northern 

 coast, these birds were our daily guests. Towards the end 

 of April their numbers decreased, and by the end of May 

 they had nearly all disappeared from Iceland. These tame 

 birds came on land by my winter dwelling on the northern 

 coast, to snap up the entrails thrown away by the in- 

 habitants, and fought fiercely for them with the Raven. I 

 had made one so tame that it came every morning 

 at a certain time to my door to obtain food, and 

 then flew away again. It gave me notice of its arrival by 



VOL. in. p p 



