LARID^. 3 I o 



specimen wliich had a small l3ut perfect hind toe and claw, one eighth of 

 an inch in length (Zool. 1887, p. 377). The Common Kittiwake of the 

 Pacific coast {li. tridactyJa Icotzthuii) has the hind toe better formed — 

 sometimes (according to Dr. Cones) almost, if not quite, as long as in 

 ordinary Gulls, with a nearly or quite perfect, though small, claw. 

 Possibly Mr. Gatcombe's bird may have been an example of the Pacific 

 form, and may have reached us by the same route by which so many 

 other American birds have come to us, namelj'', by the northern coasts of 

 Asia and Europe. 



Glaucous Gull. Lams glaucus, Fabr. 



[Great White-wiuged Gull.] 



A casual visitor, of occasional occurrence in harbours and river estuaries 

 from January to j^larch. It is most frequently seen in Plymouth Sound 

 (where it was especially numerous in the early mouths of 1872 and 1873) 

 after severe gales. The specimens obtained are mostly immature ; adults, 

 however, are not very rare. This fine Gull sometimes remains until far 

 on in the spring; the latest noticed by Mr. Gatcombe was on April 30tb, 

 1875, when one occurred in Plymouth Sound (Zool. 1875, p. 4491), but 

 Dr. E. Moore records an adult killed at Muf ley, near Plymouth, feedi)ig 

 on carrion, on May 21st, 1832 (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837). 



This splendid Gull is, from its size and courage, the tyrant among the 

 countless wild-fowl which in the short Arctic summer frequent the Polar 

 seas, preying upon the smaller species, the Little Auk especially, and 

 gaining for itself the name of "the Burgomaster" from the whalers. It 

 is, like the Fulmar and other Gulls, very fond of the blubber of the whale, 

 and two in our possession, one an adult and the other in immature plu- 

 mage, were killed at one shot when feasting on a stranded whale on the 

 Orkney coast. The Glaucous Gull is not an uncommon winter visitor to 

 the South Devon waters, numbers having been observed and recorded off 

 Plymouth in various years by Mr. J. Gatcombe, and a very interesting 

 particular mentioned by that gentleman is the late date in the spring on 

 which he has occasionally noticed this fine Gull, as well as the smaller 

 and rarer Iceland Gull. On the North Devon estuaries the Glaucous Gull 

 is rare, and we know of only two examples having been obtained, both in 

 immature plumage ; one of these, shot at Instow, is in the Museum of 

 Westward Ho ! College, as we are informed by Mr. A. H. E\ans. At 

 Weston-super-Mare this Gull is not very rare, and several have been 

 obtained in the winter-time, having come into the bay after the sprats 

 with countless other Gulls. Mr. Augustus Stone, the local bird-stuff'er, 

 possessed a very beautiful example, which, Professor Newton was kind 

 enough to inform us, was evidently a very old adult. In this bird the 

 mantle was silvery white, instead of being the usual pale French grey. 



Spfciincns wcro obtained at Plymoiitli, Jnn. 7tl) and lOtli, lS(iO ; one Jan. lyCi.'! ; one 

 Feb. 20th, 1H().S ; many old and young in February, and one iu Marcli, 1872 ; an adult 

 killed Jan. 1st, and several old and young seen in Jan., Feb., and Marcli, ISTiJ ; one 



