63 
GLAUCOUS GULL OR BURGOMASTER. 
Larus glaucus, Brunn. 
PLATE CCCCXLIX. — Adult Male and Young. 
I found this species on the coast of Labrador in very small numbers, all 
paired, in the month of July ; but our endeavours to discover their nests 
were unavailing, and their shyness, which surpassed even that of the Great 
Black-backed Gull, prevented us from seeing much of their habits. I have 
never met with one on any part of our Atlantic coast, and I am much dis- 
posed to believe that those which may retire from the Arctic regions, where 
they are numerous, follow the north-west shores of America, as is indeed 
the case with many of the hyperborean birds, they giving an unaccountable 
preference to that side of the continent. It is true that I have often been 
told at Boston and New York that the Glaucous Gull had not unfrequently 
been procured there ; but in no instance could I place any reliance upon the 
report, for when the supposed Glaucous Gull was shown to me, it proved 
• to be merely a large specimen of the Herring Gull, Larus argentatus. Dr. 
Richardson, who had good opportunities of observing this bird, speaks of 
it as follows : — 
“ This large and powerful Gull inhabits Greenland, the Polar Seas, Baffin’s 
Bay, and the adjoining straits and coasts, in considerable numbers, during 
the summer. Its winter resorts in America have not been mentioned by 
authors; and the Prince of Musignano informs us, that it is exceedingly 
rare in the United States. It is notoriously greedy and voracious, preying 
not only on fish and small birds, but on carrion of every kind. One speci- 
men killed on Captain Ross’ expedition disgorged an auk when it was struck, 
and proved, on dissection, to have another in its stomach. Unless when 
impelled to exertion by hunger, it is rather a shy, inactive bird, and has little 
of the clamorousne'ss of others of the genus. There is a considerable variety 
in the size of individuals. Captain Sabine found most of his specimens 
smaller than the L. marinus, but the largest individual of either species 
which he met with, was a male of L. glaucus, killed in Barrow’s Strait. 
Its length was thirty-two inches ; extent of wing sixty-five inches ; weight 
four pouiids and a quarter. Its tarsus was three inches and a half long, and 
its bill, which was prodigiously strong and arched, measured upwards of four 
