100 Mr Edmondston on the Kittiwdke, ^c. 
make their appearance on the coast, after the migration of 
the species had been so complete, as to leave only a few strag- 
gling young behind ? And how, also, on this supposition, can 
it be imagined, that they should so suddenly and uniformly 
have changed their plumage so very far from the few that had 
remained behind, and which they must have perfectly resem- 
bled not two months before, and now differing not only so 
much in plumage, but also in habits, while not a single adult 
bird was found accompanying them, though their departure 
must have taken place together ? But perhaps they were not 
the young of that year. How, then, is this difficulty avoided, 
that, when the kittiwakes arrive in Zetland in spring, all pre- 
sent, without one exception, the adult plumage ? Y et the young 
are not then so old by several months as on this supposition 
this bird must have been. 
This variety was to be found only for about a month in the 
neighbourhood, where it was first so numerous, and soon almost 
entirely disappeared, while some of the young kittiv/akes still 
remained. 
The supposition that it is merely the young kittiwake hatched 
in higher latitudes than Zetland^ and therefore probably more 
advanced in plumage than those of the same age produced in that 
country, does not account for the total absence in the present 
instance of the parent birds, independently of other objections ; 
nor am I quite certain that the kittiwake does breed in Green- 
land, as has been alleged. It may perhaps appear that it has 
been confounded with this bird, and that this is the only Green- 
land kittiwake. Possibly this gull may have the same relation 
to the Larus caniis^ that the Larus Islandicus {described in the 
4th volume of the Wernerian Transactions), has to the herring 
gull ; for it will not be, I suspect, disputed, that the Iceland 
gull is a distinct species, whatever ornithologist may claim the 
priority of its full and accurate description. 
Unwilling as I am to multiply species, anxious rather to sim- 
plify and reduce them, I yet confess my inability at present to 
account for the pecuharities in the habits of this bird, but on 
the presumption of its being a separate species, a species distinct 
.at least from any described British gull. 
