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seem rather to hold aloof from the other species when the latter are fishing, and fly, often in 

 pairs, far inland over the mud flats. Upon other occasions, on firing a shot in early morning, 

 when the crowd of Gulls was resting on the edge of the mud, I have observed that they almost 

 invariably wing their way to the above-mentioned field, and, when the tide rises and the fisher- 

 men begin drawing their nets, do not, like the other species, flock down to feed on the fish 

 which escape through the meshes, and which struggle for a time near the surface. Upon the 

 15th of January I again paid an early visit to the coast and took up a position on the pier. 

 Thousands of great Gulls (Larus marinus, L. fuscus, L. glaucus, and L. argentatus) were massed 

 together on the mud-edge; and on examining them carefully with my glass, I could distinguish 

 many of the more slender-built Iceland Gulls between them. At length one adult Iceland Gull 

 flew past me, and I fired, but ineffectually. With the rushing noise of many wings, the great 

 body of Gulls rose at the report of the gun, and, along with other flocks lower down the firth, 

 winged their way, as before, inland, and the air became filled as by a snow-drift." 



Mr. Saxby says that it is a regular winter visitant to the Shetland Isles, usually, however, 

 taking its departure towards the latter end of March, though he has seen a straggler as late as 

 May. Thompson says that it only occurs extremely rarely on the coasts of Ireland. 



In Greenland it is, according to Professor Newton, reported to be the most common Gull 

 after the Kittiwake. He adds that it breeds in both Inspectorates, but more commonly in the 

 southern. It has also been observed on the east coast, and is said to breed on the Parry Islands. 

 Dr. Finsch says that on the German arctic expedition two specimens were preserved — one 

 obtained late in April 1870, and the other in September 1869, on Sabine Island. In Iceland it 

 is, Professor Newton states, " a winter visitant only, arriving, according to Faber, towards the 

 end of September, and mostly leaving by the end of April, though some, chiefly birds in imma- 

 ture plumage, remain later into the summer. Mr. Wolley had one for some weeks alive at 

 Kirkjuvogr. ' It had been caught in a fish-hook, and in a day or two grew so tame as to take 

 food in one's presence." 



Captain Feilden says that Herr Muller informed him that on the 4th September, 1870, he 

 observed an old bird of this species on Naalsoe ; the adults are, he adds, but seldom seen in the 

 Faeroes, but the young are well known as winter visitants. In Norway, Mr. Collett says, it 

 "occurs annually in the winter months on the fjords of West Finmark down to Tromso. Two 

 individuals (male and female), shot out of a flock which visited Tromso Sound in December 1870, 

 were transmitted to the University Museum by Pastor Kaurin." Pastor Sommerfelt, who says 

 that it occurs not unfrequently on the Varanger fiord, adds that it is stated to breed on Renoen, 

 near Vardo, but it is uncertain as to whether it really breeds in East Finmark. 



According to Nilsson (Skand. Fauna, p. 345) it occasionally straggles to the coasts of the 

 Baltic ; there is in the Lund Museum a specimen shot on the coast near Stockholm ; and in the 

 Stockholm Museum is one obtained at Elfkarlby ; one is stated to be in the Gefle Museum which 

 was found frozen to death on a lake in Jemtland ; and, according to the late Professor Fries, one 

 was shot in Sodermanland in the winter of 1836. According to Dr. Palmen (Finl. Fogl. ii. p. 591) 

 a specimen was shot by Mr. Heikell, near Helsingfors, on the coast of Finland, in February 1836 ; 

 but I find no record of its occurrence on the Baltic coast of Germany, though, according to Dr. 

 Quistorp (J. f. O. 1860, p. 369), three examples were killed on the Hiddensee, on the west coast 



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