506 
ICELAND GUI-L. 
If tliis species be to be identified witli any of its con- 
geners, the Large Iceland Gull is that to which it is most 
assimilated ; but the reasons that induce me to reject this 
supposition I have already detailed. It therefore appears 
to me that there does exist a Lesser as well as Greater 
Iceland Gull, as we have a Greater and Lesser black-backed 
Gull. 
According to the celebrated naturalist before quoted 
(Temminck), the Large gulls are thus named : Larus ma- 
riiius, Great black-backed Gull; L. glaucus, (f^Uy de- 
scribed by me under the name of Iceland Gull) ; L. argen- 
tatus^ the Herring-Gull. L. fuscus^ is the Lesser black- 
backed Gull. An appellation is therefore wanting for the 
Lesser Iceland Gull ; and the one of Islandicus, which, 
for the^sake of precision, I proposed to apply to the Greater 
species, may be transferred to the Lesser, as perpetuating 
the only distinct vernacular name which they appear to 
have received, and by which they have been long accurately 
known to the fishermen of Zetland *. — " Souvent le peuple, 
qui voit sans le prestige des systemes^ observe mieux que 
nous, qui ne voyons quelquefois que ce que nous cherchons 
a croire d^apres Fopinion que nous nous sommes prelim i- 
nairement forme.''—(BicHAT.) 
Edinburgh, ) 
February 9. 1823. j 
• It thus appears that the young of the Lesser Iceland Gull is the Larus 
glaucoides of Temminck; the old bird, the L. argentatus of BrVinnich. — 
Edit. 
