IVORY GULL. 657 



THE first example of this truly Arctic Gull recorded in 

 the British Islands was obtained at Balta Sound, Shetland, 

 in the winter of 1822, by the late Dr. Lawrence Edmonston 

 (Mem. Wern. N. H. Soc. iv. p. 501), who presented the 

 specimen to the Edinburgh Museum. Other examples have 

 subsequently been observed there, and the Rev. S. H. Saxby, 

 in a note to his brother's 'Birds of Shetland' (p. 333), 

 says, that although a rarity, it is a tolerably regular visitor 

 to those northern islands. In Orkney it has occurred at 

 least four times : once in May ; the late Sir William 

 Jardine possessed an example with unusually short legs, 

 and comparatively long wings, shot in Caithness in Novem- 

 ber, 1854 ; two appear to have been obtained in Banffshire 

 (Zool. pp. 6974, 7387); and Mr. J. Whitaker has an 

 immature example obtained near Aberdeen in September, 

 1874. On the west side, in addition to a specimen in imma- 

 ture plumage recorded by Selby from the Firth of Clyde, 

 Mr. R. Gray mentions six individuals several of them 

 adults obtained or observed on the coast and neighbouring 

 islands. Mr. J. Hancock records one adult from the mouth 

 of the Tyne, and an immature bird, now in the Sunderland 

 Museum, shot at Seaton Carew. Besides one shot, ' many 

 years ago,' off Scarborough, examples have been obtained on 

 the Yorkshire coast in the autumns of 1875, 1879, and 1880, 

 two of them being adult males, and one in immature plumage. 

 It has not as yet visited Norfolk, the bird recorded under this 

 name (Zool. p. 1384) being, as Mr. Stevenson informs the 

 Editor, a specimen of some larger species. On the southern 

 coast three examples are mentioned by Mr. A. E. Knox from 

 Sussex ; one has been procured at Torquay ; Rodd records 

 two from Cornwall ; and two or three have been taken in 

 Somersetshire. 



In Ireland, according to Thompson, the Ivory Gull has 

 been obtained on two occasions : one near Tralee in imma- 

 ture plumage, and an adult picked up on Achil Island ; and 

 other examples have been observed. It is probable that 

 several other specimens, which are not now recorded, have 

 occurred in the British Islands ; but enough has been said 



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