ORNITHOLOGY, 



led that though the wings are said to be pale, with the tips white, it is 

 probably to be understood that like other Gulls the quill- feathers 

 were dark or black, and only the tips of the feathers white, and this idea 

 is rendered the less improbable from the ambiguous manner in v/hich 

 the wing is expressed by the engraver of the plate in Martens' work ; 

 but in the bird before us all the quill feathers are entirely of a pure 

 white, and this circumstance isobservable we believe in every other spe- 

 cimen that has been brought to this country by our northern naviga- 

 tors. We shall not hastily conclude from the absence of the black upon 

 the quill feathers that the Burgomeister of Martens are not the same 

 as the Glaucous Gull of modern Ornithologists, but the difference 

 deserves our recollection. We are quite aware that such differences 

 may result from the effects of climate, as we find exemplified 

 in various instances, and of which the difference between the 

 summer and winter plumage of the Ptarmigan, and the fur of the 

 variable Hare are prominent examples, even in our own country ; 

 but we cannot avoid observing, that under such changes there would 

 be some difficulty in defining the distinctive line between this bird 

 and a smaller individual of Larus Marinus in the winter plumage. 

 Mr. Temminck and others, admit that the Silvery Gull, Larus Ar- 

 gentatus of the northern regions, is no other than the Herring-gull, 

 in which the black colouring of the quill feathers, so conspicuous in 

 the examples that reside upon our own shores and the more southern 

 coasts of Europe, has become obliterated by the effect of a northern 

 climate. Are we quite assured that the like effect may not be pro- 

 duced upon the Larus Marinus from correspondent causes, and thus 

 produce at least a very near affinity to the winter state of the Glaucous 

 Gull ? It has been already observed, that this interesting bird, the 

 Glaucous Gull of our late writers, is an inhabitant of all the maritime 



