BRITISH BIRDS* 
25 
E. describes the bird when mature as being clothed 
with a Swan-like plumage, very full, the down on the 
body considerable, altogether rendering it almost im- 
penetrable to any shot but that of the largest descrip- 
tion, and as weighing five pounds ; its breadth from 
tip to tip of the wings five feet two inches ; the length 
from the point of the bill to the tip of the tail two feet 
five inches. The back and upper part of the wings 
very pale blue,* head and neck faintly streaked with 
dull grey. The rest of the plumage and the primary 
quills white ,* irides pale yellow ; the bill the same, but 
of a deeper cast, and the knob on the under mandi- 
ble is reddish orangn. The legs and feet much 
like those of the Herring Gull, but larger : the claws 
are dusky and rather blunt. Its place of breeding 
is unknown, it is regularly migratory, commonly in 
i small flocks, arriving in the Zetland islands about 
the middle of autumn, and departing towards the end 
of spring. Its flight is more equal and measured, and 
has less of that Kite-like soaring than others of this 
tribe. Mr E. describes it as being also more power- 
ful, and equally voracious, and calls it a marine Vul- 
ture. From these and other peculiarities in its habits 
and manners, he has ventured to characterise it as a 
distinct species, by its present name. He has likewise 
observed it on the shores of the Baltic, and believes it 
to be a native of the higher latitudes.*' 
* This bird would seem to bear some resemblance to the Lams Glaii- 
cus, to the specimen shot by Mr James Ross, midshipman of the Isabella, 
and to the Larus Argentatus, all as described by Captain Sabine, in his 
Memoir on the Birds of Greenland, as published in the twelfth volume of 
the Transactions of the Linnsean Society, London, 1818 . 
F 
