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ICELAND GULL,

Larus Islandicus, Edmonston.
Larus glaucoides, Temm.

La Mouette d Icelande.

Tue occurrence of this beautiful species of Gull on our coast is more frequent than is gene
but it appears to have escaped observation in consequence of its close resemblance to the L
resemblance is even more striking in the young birds, and it is se
species are captured in any of the temperate portions of Europe.

The northern regions constitute the native habitat of this Gull,
treme severity of the weather ; the young, as is usual

rally supposed ;
arus 2laucus, which
Idom that any but immature birds of either
whence it is driven southward by the ex-
ly the case in migratory birds, w
distance from home. Considerable confusion, it would appear, has existed respecting the nomenclature of this
species, but this has been so carefully cleared up by Mr. Selby, that we have taken the liberty of quoting in
full his observations. ‘‘ In Mr. Edmonston’s first notice of the Glaucous Gull, unde :
dicus, a suspicion is started, from the difference of size existing be
kind, that there might be two species, having such a relation to each other as that between the Greater and
Lesser Black-hacked Gulls (Z. marinus and L. fuscus).

andering to the greatest

r the name of Larus Islan-

tween individuals of the newly observed

his upon further investigation was found to be
actually the case; and some interesting remarks upon the new species, by the same

wards published in the latter part of the fourth volume of the Wernerian Society’s
appropriated to it the specific title of Js/andicus, having then ascertained that the |

gentleman, were after-
Memoirs, where he has

arger species previously

noticed, and to which he had applied the term, was already recorded, and generally known by the name of

Larus glaucus. In point of priority, therefore, this name ought to be adopted for the present species, in pre-
ference to that of Larus arcticus given to it by Mr. Macgillivray, or that of Z. leucopterus, wnder which it is
described by Richardson and Swainson in the Fauna Boreali-Americana, and by the Prince of Musignano in
his Synopsis. Captain Sabine in his memoir on the Birds of Greenland, in the twelfth volume of the Linnean
Transactions, has described the same bird under the title of Larus argentatus, and this in deference to the
opinion of M. Temminck, who at that time considered it as a variety of the Herring Gull, occasioned by the
rigours of a polar climate. The fact, however, of the true LZ. argentatus having been found with its charac-
teristic markings unchanged in those regions, together with the perfect and undeviating whiteness of the
wings of the other bird, and the difference of proportions, observable in the bills of the two species, might
justly have made the former author hesitate, before yielding even to the authority of a naturalist so deservedly
eminent. The present species, in all its states of plumage from adolescence to maturity, bears the closest re-
semblance to the Glaucous Gull, and can only be distinguished by its striking inferiority of size, and by the
greater length of its wings, which reach, when closed, upwards of an inch beyond the end of the tail; whereas
in the other bird they scarcely reach that part. Like its prototype it is a winter visitant to the Shetland Isles
and the northern parts of Scotland, and a few occasionally stray as far southward as the Northumbrian coast,
where I have obtained three or four specimens, but all in the immature plumage. Its habits are stated by
Mr. Edmonston to be more lively than those of the Glaucous Gull, and it displays more elegance of form. It
is a common species in the arctic regions, and is mentioned by Sabine and Richardson as being plentiful n
Baffin’s Bay, Davis’s Straits, and Melville Island. It is also common on the Iceland coast, to which it is
probable many of those that winter with us, and in similar latitudes, retire to breed. It feeds upon fish, the
flesh of whales, and other carrion, and when upon our shores is sometimes seen in company with the Black-
backed Gull.” :

In summer the adults have the head, neck, tail, and under surface pure white 5 the mantle and wing-
coverts pale grey; the shafts and tips of the quills pure whites bill pale reddish flesh-colour at the base,
and black at the tip; feet pale flesh-colour; irides pale yellowish grey.

In winter the head and neck are streaked with grey.

The young have the entire plumage pale yellowish gre
he tail dull brown marbled with white.

y barred and mottled with pale brown; the quills

greyish white tinged with brown ; and t
We have figured an adult male rather less than the natural size.

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