Gould commented that 'This beautiful Gull has occurred in our seas several times,...but the glacial seas of the extreme north are its natural home, for in these inhospitable regions it breeds and rears its young.'

An adult bird is depicted in the foreground with a young bird (behind) whose plumage is 'spotted and barred with brown'. Gould was grateful to Mr. Newton for a sketch of the head of this species, 'which has enabled me to give a far more correct representation than I could otherwise have done.'

DISTRIBUTION: Breeding distribution circumpolar, in northwest Canada, Greenland, Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, and islands off north Siberia. Winters south to north Europe, north Canada, and (rarely) New England. Rare visitor to Britain