96 Director' s Annual Report. 



birds. Fift3--six specimens were secured during the period spent 

 on the island. These skins, taken in connection with very full 

 notes made while in the field, form the basis of the following list. 

 The measurements are given in English inches and hundredths. 

 Where the length of a specimen is given, unless otherwise stated, 

 the measurement was taken from the specimen in the flesh. The 

 depth of bill is its vertical depth at the base. The colors of the 

 soft parts were carefully noted, so far as possible Ridgeway's 

 nomenclature of colors being used in their description. 



Larus vegae (Palmem). Pallas' Gull. 



I was so fortunate as to secure from the Japanese manager of 

 the little colony of wing hunters a single specimen of this interest- 

 ing species. My informant had resided on the island the greater 

 part of six 3'ears, during which time he had secured specimens on 

 four different occasions, but always in the winter months. The speci- 

 men before me was taken in March. The head and neck is whitish 

 streaked with brown ; the mantle is graj'ish brown, brown and 

 whitish so mixed as to give a mottled appearance to the whole back 

 and wings. The rump feathers and upper tail coverts are whitish 

 with irregular brownish splotches and bars ; the tail feathers are 

 blackish or brownish with two fairly well defined white bands and 

 whitish tips to all. The outer tail feathers are mottled brown and 

 white throughout their length; the quills are umber brown, both 

 shafts and webs, except the inner edge and tips which are whitish. 

 The secondaries are also tipped with white ; the breast is brownish 

 mottled with whitish, while the crissum and under tail coverts are 

 w^hite occasionalh' spotted with brown. The legs are light colored 

 in the skin, indicating flesh color in the living bird. The bill is 

 blackish except for a space at the base of both the upper and the 

 lower mandibles which is light colored. The measurements are : 

 Length 25.50, wing 16.25, .tail 6.55, tarsus 2'.30, toe 2.50, culmen 

 2.10. I should judge the bird to be in the .second winter plumage. 

 To my knowledge the nearest previously published record of this 

 species in the northwest Pacific is an example taken by Mr. Hoist 

 on Peel Island, of the Bonin group (See Ibis, 1890, 105), which is 

 some 600 miles distant. My Japanese informant told me of another 

 species, "smaller and with a blue back," which he had shot two 

 years before. No specimen of it was obtained. 



