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to Kincardine in December, when, owing to a storm having driven the sea-birds towards the land, 

 they found vast numbers of Sea-Gulls, amongst them many of the present species, of which, he 

 relates, they saw as many as fifty on the wing at once ; and there must, he adds, have been, on a 

 moderate computation, from a hundred and fifty to two hundred in the firth between Alloa and 

 Kincardine alone. For some years, he writes, " I have entertained the idea that it is a regular 

 migrant as far as the estuary of the Forth. On the Aberdeenshire coast it was observed two 

 years ago in considerable numbers ; and a correspondent there informed me that he never visited 

 the shore during the winter without seeing a number. I had myself killed stray examples thirty 

 years ago on the coast of East Lothian ; and in the Outer Hebrides small flocks have of late years 

 been seen frequenting the sounds which separate the islands of Benbecula and the North and 

 South Uist." It is said to be more numerous, perhaps, in the Shetland Islands than elsewhere 

 in Scotland ; and Dr. Saxby writes (B. of Shetl. p. 348) as follows : — " It never breeds in 

 Shetland, but often stays so very late as to give the impression that its not remaining throughout 

 the year is determined by only the barest turn of the scale. I have seen it in May, and have 

 met with it even as late as June, the first birds returning for the winter usually appearing about 

 the middle of October, when small flocks may be seen composed of both old and young, the 

 latter predominating in number. In winter by far the larger proportion are young birds, nearly 

 all the old ones habitually disappearing shortly after their arrival." It is occasionally seen on 

 the coasts of Ireland, as in England, in the winter season ; but its occurrences are not frequent. 

 Professor Malmgren says that it occurs numerously on the coasts of Spitzbergen, and breeds in 

 the bird colonies, usually taking possession of the highest ledges ; but sometimes it nests high up 

 in cliffs where other species do not breed. 



Professor Newton writes that it is the most common of the large Gulls in Greenland. At 

 Najartul, south of Godthaab, it is said to breed by itself, but most generally in company with 

 Kittiwakes and Iceland Gulls. It is found on the west side of Davis's Strait and the east coast 

 of Greenland, and is said to be as numerous in the Polar Sea as it is in Davis's Strait. Professor 

 Newton also says that it is common and resident in Iceland, and, according to Faber, it breeds on 

 the rocKy coasts of the promontory which divides the Faxafjor^r from the Breid ; Sifj6r ! Sr. 

 Mr. Milner took its nests on an island in the first-named bay ; and any number of its reputed 

 eggs may be bought at Reykjavik; but they are in all probability those of the Great Black- 

 backed Gull. According to Svabo the present species was unknown in Fseroe before 1756, 

 which was a bad year in Iceland. It now arrives there, Captain Feilden writes, late in the 

 autumn, and leaves early in February. In Norway, Mr. Collett informs me, it breeds sparingly 

 only in the northern portions of the country and as far south as Stadt, north of Bergen. During 

 winter it visits the southern coasts in small numbers, being nowhere numerous. In Sweden it is, 

 as in Norway, uncommon in the south, becoming more numerous towards the north. Nilsson 

 says that it occurs rarely near Gothenburg and on the Bohuslan coast, and more frequently on 

 the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic. According to Dr. Palmen it occurs by no 

 means rarely on the south coast of Finland in October and November, and in April and May, 



o 



and has been observed at Sibbo, Helsingfors, Helsinge, Esbo, Kyrkslatt, Jugo, Porkkala, Aland, 

 &c. It not unfrequently remains in the outer fringe of islands in January and February, and 

 occasionally penetrates far up the bays, as for instance in Tholo Bay, near Helsingfors, Uskela, 



