ICELAND GULL, 
505 
tic climate * ; but this opinion appears partial and hypo- 
thetical. 
The summer-plumage of the Greater Black-backed 
Gull, of the Razor- Bill, and Black Guillemot, and other 
water-birds common to the arctic and temperate climates, 
is the same in whatever region they are met with ; yet the 
plumage of the Lesser Iceland Gull remains at this, as at 
every other season, quite distinct from that of the Herring- 
Gull. 
There is no instance of the Iceland Gull breeding in 
Zetland that has ever come to my knowledge, though in 
that country the Herring-Gulls are remarkably numerous. 
The habits and general aspect, the size and shape of the 
bill, the voice, mode of flight, shape of the wings, are all 
dilFerent ; nor does it attempt to alarm other birds on the 
approach of the sportsman, a quality for which the Herring- 
Gull is so remarkable. The young of each are also equally 
distinct. 
It will also be borne in mind, that I had formed the opi- 
nion of two species of Iceland Gull as early as the year 1809; 
and in 1814, had sent a specimen, and full description of 
the greater species to the London Museum, before I had 
heard of such a name as the Larus glaucus or argentatus, 
or any other synonym of these two species, whose exist- 
ence and description by the older ornithologists, were till 
recently forgotten, or only obscurely and indefinitely re- 
membered. It was not likely that my impressions were 
biassed by the opinions of others, when, from remoteness 
and peculiarity of situation, my ornithological library was 
confined to a book or two on British birds, and my mu- 
seum to the precipices and heaths of Zetland. 
* See Captain Sabine's paper on the birds of Greenland, published in the 
Linnean Transactions for 1818. 
