288 THE WHITE-WINGED, AND COMMON GULLS. 
not quite so clamorous as some. The general length of this 
bird is twenty-six or twenty-seven inches ; the back and 
wings are light bluish grey, the quills being white at the 
end ; the head and neck are white, streaked with very 
pale brown ; all the other parts of the plumage are white. 
The feet are flesh-coloured ; the bill is a brown yellow, 
with a carmine patch on the lower mandible ; the edges of 
the eyelids are red. The bird is called Glaucus from its 
shining, frosted, or silvery appearance ; it is sometimes called 
the Large White-winged Gull. It has never been known 
to breed in the British Islands. 
The White-winged Gull is another rare visitant to these 
islands, wdiere but few specimens have been taken, mostly 
in Scotland, and none farther south than Yorkshire. It is 
found in summer on the coasts of Greenland, Labrador, and 
other arctic regions, whence it migrates southward in 
autumn, advancing as far as Boston along the eastern shores 
of America ; while in Europe it appears along the conti- 
nental shores as far southward as Holland and Belgium. 
The colours of the plumage of this bird are much like 
those of the species last described, than which it is much 
smaller. Yarrell gives this condensed account of its habits, 
as described by Faber : — ^ Its manners differ from those of 
the Glaucus Gull, which has the habits of the Great Black- 
backed Gull, and moves with more energy. The nature of 
the White -winged Gull more resembles that of the HeiTing 
Gull ; its deportment and flight are more graceful, it hovers 
over its prey, is somewhat greedy, always active, and is 
not afraid to fight with equal or suj)erior antagonists for its 
food.' 
The Common Gull is the smallest British member of its 
genus, its general length being about eighteen inches ; the 
back and wings are light bluish grey, the quills tipped with 
white, the outer five variegated with black ; all the rest of 
the plumage is white, that on the head and hind neck being 
streaked and spotted with brownish grey ; the bill is greenish 
yellow, margins of the eyelids red, feet greenish grey. 
A common, lively, and beautiful species this, the fami- 
liar representative of the true British Gulls, well known 
upon all our coasts and in the estuaries of our tidal rivers, as 
