FORK-TAILED GULL. 297 



flew with impetuosity towards those who approached their 

 nests, and, when one was killed, its mate, though frequently 

 fired at, continued on the wing close to the spot. They 

 were observed to collect their food from the sea beach, 

 standing near the edge of the water, and gleaning up the 

 marine insects which were cast on shore. A single indi- 

 vidual was seen in Prince Regent's Inlet, and many speci- 

 mens were procured, in the course of the second voyage, on 

 Melville Peninsula. A pair were also obtained at Spitzber- 

 gen, so that it is a pretty general summer resident on the 

 shores of the Arctic seas, and may thus be enumerated 

 ajnongst the European as well as the American birds. It 

 arrives in these remote boreal regions in June, and retires to 

 the southward in August. When newly killed they had all 

 a delicate pink blush on their under plumage. The eggs, 

 2 in number, are deposited on the bare ground, and 

 hatched in the last week of July. They are of an olive 

 color with many brown blotches, and about an inch and a 

 half in length. 



The length of the species about 13^ inches ; of the tail 5 inches ; 

 the wing 11 inches long : the bill from above, 1 inch ; the tarsus 1 

 inch 4 lines ; depth of the fork of the tail 1 inch. Summer plumage ; 

 with the head and upper part of the throat blackish-grey, bounded by 

 a velvet black collar. Mantle bluish-grey. The anterior border of 

 the wing, primary coverts, and 5 first primaries pitch black, the lat- 

 ter broadly bordered anteriorly with white nearly to their tips. The 

 rest of the primaries, the greater part of the secondary coverts, the 

 ends of the secondaries, tips of the tertiaries and scapulars, with the 

 neck, tail, and whole under plumage, pure white. Bill black, with 

 a yellow tip ; the upper mandible a little curved at the point, and 

 with a conspicuous salient angle on the lower one. Inside of the 

 mouth and edges of the eye-lids vermilion-red. Legs and feet 

 black. Irids the same. The bill is much smaller than that of L. ri- 

 dihundus and L. tridactijhis. but twice as stout as that of L. Rossii. 

 Wings an inch longer than the tail. The nail of the hind toe is very 

 email. The winter plumage and that of the young is yet unknown. 



