The Glaucous Gull. 97 



small dark brown spots, and black blotches, those underneath the surface purplish- 

 grey. Often there are very few spots or markings. Mr. Seebohm attributed the 

 beautiful reddish-buff eggs which are often obtained in certain gulleries to the 

 present species; but the investigations of Mr. Pearson in 1896 seem to have 

 definitely settled the question that they are laid by the Herring Gull (L. argentatus) 

 " at any rate," he says, " I was told last year that Larus glaucus had ceased to 

 breed at Vardb" for some time, yet red eggs are still obtained there. The reader 

 is referred to Mr. Pearson's observations on this subject quoted on page 82, in 

 our description of the Herring Gull. 



According to Neumann this species incubates for four weeks, and the chicks, 

 that then emerge, are clothed in dust-grey down, the head and back mottled with 

 brown. 



The young bird appears, on becoming fully fledged, in a rich cream-coloured 

 plumage, streaked above and below with greyish-brown, the head and neck with 

 streaks of the same colour ; upper surface transversely barred with pale brown, 

 the feathers tipped with yellow; "outer quills clay-brown on their outer webs 

 and paler on the inner webs ; upper and under tail-coverts rather boldly marked 

 with brown " (Saunders) ; tail-bars broken up into irregular spots ; bill yellow 

 with a black tip ; legs and feet brownish. 



It is not known how many seasons — probably three autumns at least — this 

 species has to pass before it dons the plumage of the adult. " In the spring 

 preceding the final autumnal moult into adult winter dress, a mottled plumage 

 is acquired of so pale a character that it fades during the summer into a creamy- 

 white " (Seebohm). "At the subsequent moult the pearl-grey [some of which 

 may appear in the second autumn] [of the] mantle is assumed, but the new tail 

 feathers show some faint brownish mottlings until the next year" (Saunders). 



The fully adult winter garb differs from that of the summer only in having 

 the head and neck streaked with brown. 



The Glaucous Gull resembles in plumage, and is liable to be mistaken for, 

 the Iceland Gull ; but it is much larger, and has shorter wings ; its flight also is 

 heavier ; and it has white tipped primaries, with no black on the outer ones 

 at any age. 



This fine Gull is " notoriously greedy and voracious, preying not only on 

 fish and small birds, but on carrion of every kind. Ont specimen killed on 

 Captain Ross' expedition 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 clamorousness of 

 others of the genus " (Richardson). Mr. Trevor Battye notes that " the 



Vol. VI. Q 



