[goi] Prince — Ross's Gull. 55 



ROSS'S GULL [Rhodostethia rosia, Macgill.) 



By Protessor E. E. Prince, Ottawa. 



My brief account of the scientific results of Dr. Nansen'.s Polar 

 Expedition, which appeared in The Ottawa Naturalist last 

 November, has hroug^ht me many kind and interesting- communi- 

 cations none more so than a letter from Dr. Otto J. Klotz who 

 generously loaned to me a volume of the Report of the Interna- 

 tional Polar Expedition sent out by the United States Government 

 in 1881. In this volume Dr. Klotz pointed out to me, occur two 

 fine coloured plates of Ross's Gull, or the Roseate Gull {Rhodos- 

 tethia rosea, Macgill.) and my statement on p. 143, vol. 14 of this 

 publication dernands correction. I ventured to say that in the 

 conjoint report of Dr. Nansen and Dr. Collett, on birds observed 

 in the polar regions, there is given for the first time a fully detailed 

 description of Ross's Gull with exquisitely tinted illustrative plates 

 and I am indebted to Or. Klotz for calling my attention to the 

 real facts, and for enabling me to correct my statement. In 

 matters of this kind rigid accuracy is above all things necessary 

 and it is only just to the United States observer, Mr. John Mur- 

 doch to state that on pp. 123-4-5 of his report on the birds noticed 

 during the International Polar Expedition, 1881-2-3 he gives a des- 

 cription of this rare species, and accompanies it by two tinted 

 plates. Mr. Murdoch states that a large series of specimens was 

 secured, and they appeared not sporadically and in scattered num- 

 bers, but in abundance on certain dates. Thus from September 

 28th to October 22nd, 1881, small flocks were seen moving north- 

 east, their total numbers being so considerable that the observer 

 speaks of them as exceedingly abundant. Next year about the 

 end of September these gulls again appeared plentifully ; but, cur- 

 iously enough, they were all young birds as far as could be 

 ascertained. Mr. Murdoch pertinently remarks that it is difficult 

 to say what becomes of the thousands coming west, and proceed- 

 ing along the Alaskan coast taking a northeasterly course. Of 

 course the point of observation (Point Barrow) was nearly nine 

 degrees of latitude south of Nansen's, which as I pointed out was 

 in the Hirtenland waters, and its nesting grounds as Nansen sur- 



