ROSS'S ROSY GULL. 619 



*' 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 Avell as the feet, vermilion-red. 



" Description of a specimen killed, June, 1823, at Alag- 

 nak, Melville Peninsula, Lat. 60^\ N. 



" Colour. — Scapulars, interscapulars, and both surfaces 

 of the wing, 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 eye- 

 lids 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 compressed towards the point ; the commissures 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 lateral. Tarsi rather stout ; the thumb very 

 distinct, armed with a nail as large as that of the outer toe. 



" The other specimen killed by Mr. Sheier a few days 

 later diifers only in the first primary coverts having the same 

 dark colour, with the outer web of the first primary itself. 



" Length to end of tail 14 inches ; tail 5^ ; Aving 10|^ ; 

 bill along the ridge f ; rictus 1^^ ; from nostril to tip of bill 

 four-twelfths and a half ; tarsus l-j^^ ; middle toe ten-twelfths 

 and a half, its nail -^.^' 



Only two specimens were obtained on the Arctic Expedi- 

 tions, and one of them was given to Sir Joseph Sabine. In 

 my " Manual of British Birds," I stated that " this species 

 has once occurred in Ireland." But, as I did not see it there, 

 and probably was misinformed, and cannot recollect anything 

 about the matter, I must now state, as Mr. Thompson, our 

 great Irish authority, has had no announcement of its occur- 

 rence there, that it remains to be added to the Fauna of that 

 country. Since then, however, it has been introduced into 



