484 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



and alight in ploughed fields, where they appear to content them- 

 selves for a time with what they can pick up in the way of 

 subsistence. I have seen many hundreds at a time resting 

 themselves during a snow storm, and dozing on one leg for nearly 

 a whole day, huddled together in a mass, and looking very 

 subdued. On being put to flight on such occasions, they would 

 merely flap lazily in circles above the intruder, and return to 

 their roosting quarters, drawing closely together as before where 

 the snow had been trampled down on their first assemblage. 



In the beginning of November, 1868, I observed about 150 of 

 these gulls late in the afternoon rising from the land and flying 

 seawards across the links of Dunbar. The birds were quite near 

 enough to be recognised, and I distinctly saw that the feet of 

 some of them were covered with clay, which had adhered to 

 them when on the ploughed fields, and apparently baffled all 

 their efforts to remove. As they flew over my head, I could see 

 them vainly trying to shake 1 the dust off their feet ; and as they 

 directed their flight seawards, I could not help thinking they 

 might visit some earth-covered rock, and there leave any grain or 

 seeds, which happened to be in the clay, to take root and grow for 

 the future edification or wonderment of some wandering botanist. 



THE ICELAND GULL. 

 LARUS 1CELAND1CUS. 



THE Iceland Gull, or lesser white-winged gull of Yarrell, may be 

 distinguished from all the other British gulls by the absence of the 

 black tips to the wings at any age. This feature, no doubt, also 

 belongs to the glaucous gull, but the dissimilarity in size between 

 the two birds prevents them being confounded. The only species 

 closely resembling it at first sight is the herring gull, from which, 

 however, it can always be distinguished by the quill feathers being 

 all white. One of the English names, therefore, given to the 

 species by Mr Yarrell, while serving to recognise it from the 

 herring gull, at the same time distinguishes it from the glaucous, 

 which may be called the greater white-winged gull a nomenclature 

 which has been found useful in describing the two gulls with 

 a "black back" since Pennant first noticed the difference in their 

 size. 



