THE ICELAND GULL. 769 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Winter-visitor, exceptional summer. 

 Most frequent and occasionally abundant east coast Great Britain 

 from Shetlands to Norfolk. Frequent north and west Ireland. 

 Elsewhere rare and occasional, although apparently regular 

 O. Hebrides. Adults very rare in south and west. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Breeds Iceland, Bear Island, Spitsbergen, 

 coasts and islands of north Russia and Siberia, Greenland and N. 

 America south to Newfoundland. In winter south to Mediterranean, 

 Black and Caspian Seas, in Pacific Ocean to Kauai and Maui 

 (Hawaiian Is.), in America to California, Pennsylvania, N. Carolina 

 and Indiana. Once Madeira, once Azores, once Gulf of Akaba 

 (Red Sea). 



LARUS GLAUCOIDES* 



458. Larus glaucoides Meyer— THE ICELAND GULL. 



Larus glaucoides Meyer, Zus. & Ber. Meyer & Wolf's Taschenb. 

 deutsch. Vogelk. p. 197 (1822 — Seas of Arctic zone, for ex. Iceland, 

 sometimes migrants German coasts. Restricted typ. loc. Iceland). 

 Larus islandicus Edmonston, see under L. hyperboreus. 

 Larus leucopterus Faber, Yarrell, in, p. 642 ; Saunders, p. 681 ; Hand- 

 List. (1912), p. 202. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter and summer. — 

 Coloration and apparently also moults as in Glaucous Gull. 



Nestling. — (Not examined.) 



Juvenile and first winter and summer. — As in Glaucous but 

 brown barring on mantle and scapulars usually rather narrower ; 

 shafts of primaries often tinged brown but this is not invariable. 



Second winter and summer. — As in Glaucous judging from few 

 examples examined. 



Third winter and summer. — From very meagre material avail- 

 able perhaps rather more freckled pale brown and not so uniform 

 on upper -parts as in Glaucous Gull. 



Fourth winter and summer. — As in Glaucous Gull. 



Measurements and structure. — $ wing 405-430 mm. (juv. same), 

 tail 155-175, tarsus 55-61, bill from feathers 40-50 (10 measured). 

 $ wing 390-405 (juv. 380-395), bill 39-45. Primaries : 1st pointed 

 and about two -thirds primary-coverts, 2nd longest, 3rd as long or 

 5-8 mm. shorter, 4th 17-20 shorter, 5th 40-50 shorter. Rest of 

 structure as in Herring-Gull. 



Soft parts. — Apparently as in Glaucous Gull. 



Characters. — Smaller size distinguishes it from Glaucous Gull 

 and absence of black on primaries from other British Gulls. 



Breeding-habits. — Breeds in colonies, sometimes together with 

 other species and sometimes by itself, sometimes on ledges of cliffs 



* It has now been shown that L. leucopterus Faber, 1822, is preoccupied 

 by L. leucopterus Vieillot, 1821 (see Austr. Av. Rec, iv, p. 156). 



VOL. II. 3 D 



