192 BRITISH BIRDS. 



breadth five feet two inches; length two feet five 

 inches. The back and upper part of the wings 

 very pale blue ; head and neck faintly streaked 

 with dull grey. The rest of the plumage and the 

 primary quills white: irides pale yellow; bill the 

 same, but of a deeper cast, and the knob on 

 the under mandible reddish orange. Legs and 

 feet much like those of the Herring Gull, but 

 larger: claws dusky, and rather blunt. It is 

 regularly migratory, in small flocks, arriving in 

 the Zetland Islands about the middle of autumn, 

 and departing towards the end of spring. Its 

 flight is more equal and measured, and has less 

 of the Kite-like soaring than others of this tribe. 

 It is also more powerful, and equally voracious. 

 Captain Sabine says, "This fine species of Gull 

 is as numerous in the Polar Sea as in Baffin's 

 Bay and Davis's Straits, occupying with their 

 nests the pinnacles of rocks, and the projecting 

 ledges of cliffs on the sea-shore/' 



