RARER BRITISH BIRDS. 59 



ICELAND GULL. 



Larus Leucopterus. FABER. 



M. TEMMINCK, and Captain Sabine, for some time did not 

 allow that this Gull and the Herring Gull (Larus Angentatus, 

 Brunn) were distinct ; but later observations, and particularly 

 those of Mr. Edmonston, have, without doubt, proved them to 

 be so. It was supposed to be the L. Angentatus, deprived of 

 the black markings on the wings by the cold of the Arctic 

 regions; but the Herring Gull is found not to be deprived of 

 these markings in the same habitat, why, therefore, should it 

 be the case with some, and not with others ? 



Mr. Edmonston noticed this bird as a winter visitant of Unst, 

 one of the Shetland Isles, where it was confounded by the 

 inhabitants with the Burgomaster, under the name of Iceland 

 Gull. A few, Mr. Selby informs us in his " British Ornitho- 

 logy," stray as far southward as the Northumbrian coast, where 

 he mentions having obtained three or four specimens, but all in 

 an immature state of plumage. 



In the " Fauna Boriali Americana," this Gull is mentioned 

 under the name L. Leucopterus, (Faber.) We are also told, in 

 the same work, that, during the first voyage of Sir Edward Parry 

 and Captain Ross, many specimens of this Gull were obtained 

 in Davis's Straits, Baffin's Bay, and Melville Island. 



The Iceland Gull differs from the Burgomaster in being of 

 smaller size, being about six inches less in length, and nine in 

 breadth. The tarsi are half an inch shorter in the former than 

 in the latter. The wings, when closed in the former, reach 

 beyond the tail ; while, in the latter, they do not reach quite to 



