BRITISH BIRDS 



wanders at the same time to Ireland. Breeding as near our coasts as Iceland, 

 where it is found throughout the year, it inhabits the circumpolar seas, whence a 

 good many birds migrate, on the approach of the northern ice, to more southerly 

 regions. It then ranges in Europe as far as the Mediterranean and Black Seas, in 

 Eastern Asia to Japan, and in America to Florida. 



The nests have been found situated at low elevations on sandy shores, where 

 they were mere depressions with a lining of sea-weed, at other times they are placed 

 high up on cliffs. 



The eggs, usually three in number, are pale greyish-brown, spotted with dark 

 brown and grey. 



Predatory in its habits and of a domineering disposition, this Gull had the name 

 of 11 Burgomaster" applied to it by the old mariners of the Arctic seas, and, like its 

 congeners, it utters loud and harsh cries. 



The bird in the plate is shown in winter plumage ; in summer the head and 

 neck are pure white. When young, the colour is dull yellowish-white, mottled with 

 shades of brown blended with grey. 



THE ICELAND GULL. 



Larus leucopterus, Faber. 

 Plate 73. 



Closely resembling the Glaucus Gull in colour, but smaller and rela- 

 tively with much more length of wing, this species may occasionally be seen 

 off the English coast in winter, but much more frequently in the Shetlands 

 and on the north-eastern coast of Scotland than in other parts of the British 

 Islands. 



Jan Mayen Island, Greenland, and the Arctic regions of America appear to be 

 its chief breeding grounds, whence it wanders to more southerly climes for the 

 winter. 



The nest, situated on the ledges of cliffs or on sandy shores, contains 

 from two to three eggs, in ground-colour greenish-drab, marked with blotches 

 of brown. 



Mr. Harvie-Brown, as quoted in Dresser's Birds of Europe, says : " When 

 flying, the action of the Iceland Gull is more airy and buoyant, less Owl-like, than 

 that of the Glaucus Gull"; and Saxby, in his Birds of the Shetland Isles, p. 336, 



70 



