60 GLAUCOUS GULL OR BURGOMASTER. 



greedy and voracious, preying not only on fish and small birds, but on 

 carrion of every kind. One specimen killed on Captain Ross's expedi- 

 tion disgorged an auk when it was struck, and proved, on dissection, 

 to have another in its stomach. Unless when impelled to exertion by 

 hunger, it is rather a shy inactive bird, and has little of the clamorous- 

 ness of others of the genus. There is a considerable variety in the 

 size of individuals. Captain Sabine found most of his specimens 

 smaller than the L. marinus, but the largest individual of either spe- 

 cies which he met with, was a male of L. glaucus, killed in Barrow's 

 Strait. Its length was thirty-two inches ; extent of wing sixty-five 

 inches ; weight four pounds and a quarter. Its tarsus was three inches 

 and a half long, and its bill, which was prodigiously strong and arched, 

 measured upwards of four inches. The eggs of this Gull are pale 

 purplish-grey, with scattered spots of umber-brown, and subdued laven- 

 der-purple." 



My figures were taken from specimens kindly presented to me by 

 my friend Captain James Clarke Ross, R. N. 



Lakus glaucus, Qmel. Syst. Nat. voL i. p. 600. — Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 814. — 

 Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 361. 



Larus glaucus, Buhgomaster Gull, Richards, and Swains. Fauna Bor.-Amer. 

 vol. ii. p. 416. 



Glaucous Gull, or Burgomaster, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 306. 



Adult Male. Plate CCCXCVI. Fig. 1. 



Bill shorter than the head, stout, compressed, higher near the end 

 than at the base. Upper mandible with the dorsal line nearly straight 

 for half its length, declinate and arched towai'ds the end, the ridge 

 convex, the sides very rapidly sloping and slightly convex, the edges 

 sharp and somewhat inflected, the tip rather obtuse. Nasal groove 

 rather long and narrow ; nostrils in its fore part, lateral, longitudinal, 

 linear-oblong, wider anteriorly, pervious. Lower mandible with the 

 angle long and narrow, the outline of the crura decurved toward their 

 junction, where there is a prominence, beyond which the outline ascends 

 and is slightly concave, the sides erect and nearly flat, the edges sharp 

 and a little inflected. 



Head large, ovato-oblong, narrowed anteriorly. Neck of moderate 

 length, strong. Body full. Feet of moderate length, rather slender : 





