35 



quently obliged to quote the following description from Dr. 

 Richardson's work : — 



" Cuneate-tailed Gull, with a pearl-grey mantle. Wings 

 longer than the cuneiform tail. The outer web of the first 

 tail-feather blackish ; a slender black bill, tarsi an inch long, 

 and, as well as the feet, vermilion red. 



" Two specimens of this Gull were killed on the coast of Mel- 

 ville Peninsula, on Sir Edward Parry's second voyage, one of 

 which is preserved in the Museum of the University of Edin- 

 burgh, and the other was presented to Joseph Sabine, Esq. No 

 other examples are known to exist in collections ; but Commander 

 Ross, in his Zoological Appendix to Sir Edward Parry's narra- 

 tive of his most adventurous boat-voyage towards the Pole, 

 relates that several were seen during the journey over the ice 

 north of Spitzbergen, and that Lieutenant Forster also found 

 the species in Waygait Straits, which is probably one of its 

 breeding places. It is to Commander Ross, who killed the first 

 specimen which was obtained, that the species is dedicated, as a 

 tribute for his unwearied exertions in the promotion of natural 

 history on the late Arctic voyages, in all of which he bore a 

 part. Of the peculiar habits or winter retreat of this species 

 nothing is known. 



" Description of a specimen killed, June 1823, at Alagnak, 

 Melville Peninsula, Lat. 69^° N. 



" Colour. — Scapulars, inter-scapulars, and both surfaces of the 

 wings clear pearl grey ; outer web of the first quill blackish- 

 brown to its tip, which is grey ; tips of the scapulars and lesser 

 quills whitish. Some small feathers near the eye, and a collar 

 round the middle of the neck pitch black. Rest of the plumage 

 white, the neck above and the whole under plumage deeply 

 tinged with peach-blossom-red in recent specimens. Bill black ; 

 its rictus and the edges of the eyelids reddish-orange. Legs and 

 feet vermilion-red ; nails blackish. 



" Form. — Bill slender, weak, with a scarcely perceptible salient 

 angle beneath ; the upper mandible slightly arched and com- 

 pressed towards the point ; the commissure slightly curved at 

 the tip. Wings an inch longer than the decidedly cuneiform 

 tail, of which the central feathers are an inch longer than the 



