IVORY WHALE-GULL. 511 



Captain Sabine it is abundant in Baffin's Bay, and Dr. 

 Richardson states that it was found breeding in great numbers 

 on the high perforated cliffs forming the extremity of Cape 

 Parry, in latitude 70^ As I have had uo opportunity of 

 visiting its haunts, or even of seeing it alive in a single 

 instance, I can only add, that, according to the accounts of 

 authors, it is less shy than Gulls generally are, being nearly 

 as fearless as the Fulmar, Avith which it associates -while 

 feeding on dead whales ; has a strong and harsli voice ; and, 

 unless when engaged in breeding, is usually met with on the 

 open sea. Mr. Audubon says he has ascertained that it visits 

 the southern coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland every 

 winter. A very few instances of its visiting Britain have 

 been recorded. Tlie first of these came under the observation 

 of Dr. Edmondston, who, in the fourth volume of the Memoirs 

 of the Wernerian Society, has described a young individual, 

 shot in Balta Sound, Shetland, on the loth December, 1822. 

 Mr. Selby states that " it has been killed, also in an immature 

 state, in the Firth of Clyde." Two others are mentioned as 

 having been obtained on the coasts of Durham and Yorkshire, 

 two at Brighton, one at St. Leonards, and the eighth at Hye. 

 It " has very rarely been observed " in Ireland. Instances 

 are mentioned by Mr. Thompson. 



Young. — According to M. Temminck " the young are 

 marked and spotted with blackish-brown, much in the same 

 manner as the Dappled Petrel, but the spots are more distant 

 from each other ; the quills marked toward the end with a 

 black spot ; a black band on the tail. The bill leaden, with 

 the extreme tip yellowish. These black spots still occur in 

 some adult individuals, probably two or three years of age, 

 but they are then small ; each quill and all the tail-feathers 

 have them at little distances from the end ; the whole plumage 

 is spotted with black on a white ground. 



The individual obtained by Dr. Edmondston was sixteen 

 inches in length, and thirty-nine and a half in extent of 

 wdng. The sides were of a pale lead colour ; the bill bluish- 

 black at the base, gradually becoming paler toward the point ; 

 the feet and claws black ; the plumage of a delicate glossy 



