Bannerman's Account of Azorean atlantis
David Bannerman (1886-1979) made many visits to the Atlantic Islands and his accounts give much background information. His series Birds of the Atlantic Islands runs to 4 volumes covering the Canaries, Madeira, the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. Information on atlantis in the Canaries, Madeira and Cape Verde is found elsewhere .
To retain clarity, some of the jpeg files below are quite large (c500kb).
Part 3 covers the Azores:
Bannerman, D A, & Bannerman, W M, (1966), Birds of the Atlantic Islands, III. A History of the Birds of the Azores, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh & London.
Bannerman makes no distinction between these gulls and those in Madeira and the Salvages (near the Canaries). He also mentions the debate over whether they are better classified with fuscus or argentatus and confirms his preference for the latter as Larus argentatus atlantis.
Bannerman notes their plentifulness in the Azores. May and June are the principal months for breeding. Comparing the gulls here with those in the Canaries, Bannerman notes:
"In Volume I, p..116, I described the eggs of this gull which I had found in the Canary Islands. It will be remarked that nesting in the Azores, which lie so much further north than the Canaries, took place nearly a month later".
Measurements of 12 eggs collected by de Chavigny were reported in mm as: 68.65 x 49.40 (average), 75.4 x 50.0 and 68.7 x 50.7 (maximum), 65.2 x 47.1 (minimum). The eggs were described thus:
"The ground colour of the eggs varied from pale grey to greyish-olive, more or less dark; the markings and spots resembled those of Larus argentatus and Larus fuscus."
Measurements of eggs from the
Canaries, p.116 are given in mm as: 75 x 49 and 73 x 50 (maximum), 63.5 x 46 (minimum). Hence the eggs in the Canaries are quite similar to those in the Azores in maximum and minimum figures.
