436 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



were damaged, and it was evident that he was wearied of con- 

 tending with the tempest. We tried to secure a very close 

 inspection, but the fine fellow carefully kept out of gunshot, and 

 seemed quite annoyed at our interfering with his intended 

 repose. Once, indeed, he flew a short distance out to sea, but 

 the tide was flowing fast ; great waves came heaving shorewards 

 to break into long lines of seething foam. The Gull thought 

 better of his first purpose. Recrossing the beach, he rose to a 

 considerable height, and, after taking a couple of turns to 

 survey the country, sailed off inland and dropped to rest 

 in one of the neighbouring fields, where we left him. On the 

 following day he had disappeared. Early in February 1892 a 

 single Glaucous Gull made its appearance on the upper waters 

 of the English Sol way. It was reported to me by Thomas Peal 

 as an ' Ivory Gull,' but his description of its size satisfied us 

 that it must be an immature example of Larus glaucus. Mr. 

 Thorpe and I searched for it ourselves on the banks of the Esk, 

 but to no purpose. Peal was out shooting daily, but he never 

 saw it again until the 25th of the month, when he spied it 

 feeding upon some dead fish on the opposite side of the river. 

 He waited all day to get a shot, and bagged his bird before night 

 fell. He brought it in to me for identification the same evening. 

 The alar expanse exceeded 5 feet by half an inch. 



ICELAND GULL. 



Larus leucopterus, Faber. 



The late Mr. T. C. Heysham was the first naturalist to record 

 the occurrence of this Gull in Lakeland. The specimen which 

 he obtained had been killed on the Solway Firth on the 8th of 

 February 1835. 1 For many years this remained the only 

 specimen obtained on our coast, but in 1880 another example, 

 immature like the first, was shot at the mouth of the river 

 Calder on the 20th of February. On the 28th of January 

 1882 Mr. Moore of Millom shot a third immature bird on the 

 saltings near that town, and the same man fired at, but missed, 



1 Mag. Nat. Hist., 1836, p. 187. 



