416 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[181.] 1. Larus glaucus. (Briiiinich.) Burgomaster Gull. 



Genus, Laras, Linn. 



Larus glaucus (Glaucous gull). Sab. Greenl. Birds, p. 543, Suppl. Parry's First Voy., p cciii. 

 Goeland burgermeister (Larus glaucus). Temm., ii., p. 757- 

 Larus glacialis (Greenland Gull). M'Giixivray, TVern. Trans., v., p. 2/0. 

 Larus glaucus (Glaucous gull). Richardson, Append. Parry's Second Voy., p. 358. 

 Bonap. Syn., No. 302. 



This large and powerful gull inhabits Greenland, the Polar Seas, Baffin's Bay, 

 and the adjoining straits and coasts, in considerable numbers during the summer. 

 Its winter resorts in America have not been mentioned by authors ; and the 

 Prince of Musignano informs us, that it is exceedingly rare in the United States. 

 It is notoriously greedy and voracious, preying not only on fish and small birds, 

 but on carrion of every kind. One specimen killed on Captain Ross's expe- 

 dition, 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 and inactive bird, and has little of the clamorousness of others of the genus. 

 There is a considerable variety in the size of individuals. Captain Sabine found 

 most of his specimens smaller than the L. marinus ; but the largest individual 

 of either species which he met with, was a male L. glaucus killed in Barrow's 

 Strait. Its length was thirty-two inches ; extent of wing sixty-five inches ; 

 weight four pounds and a quarter. Its tarsus was three inches and a half long, 

 and its bill, which was prodigiously strong and arched, measured upwards of 

 four inches. The eggs of this gull are pale purplish-grey, with scattered spots 

 of umber-brown and subdued lavender purple. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a mature bird in summer plumage, killed on Sir E. Parry's second voyage. 



Colour. — Mantle French-grey. The edge of the wing, the ends of the first primaries, 

 and the shafts and tips of the others with all the rest of the plumage white. Bill wine- 

 yellow, marked near the tip of the lower mandible with orpiment-orange. Irides straw- 

 yellow. Legs and feet livid flesh-colour. 



Form. — Bill strong with an evident angular projection near the point beneath. 



In winter the head and neck are streaked and mottled with dull and very pale wood- 

 brown. The young are streaked longitudinally on the neck with pale-brown, and the upper 

 plumage is barred transversely with ash-grey and greyish-yellow ; the tail irregularly spotted. 

 The shafts of the primaries are white, and the spots on the webs are much paler than in the 

 young of L. marinus and argentatus. The bill is horn-coloured at the base, and brownish- 

 black at the tip. Feet flesh-coloured. 



