,^2 ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



To Bering Island they arrived in 1883, about the 1st of April, when 

 flocks were observed at Tolstoj Mys. I found the first young ones 

 hatched on Copper Island, August 2, 1883. 



22. Hissa brevirostris (Bruch). 



1843. — Larus hrachyrhynelms Gould, P. Z. S., 1843, p. 106 (nee Richards., 1831) ; Id., 

 Zool. Voy. Sulphur, p. 50, pi. 34 (1844).— FixscH, Abh. Brem. Ver., Ill, 1872, 

 p. 84. 



1845. — Bissa nivea Gray, Gen. Birds, III, p. 655 {nee Pall.). 



1853. — Llarus'] Irevirostris" Bruch, Journ. f. Ornitli., 1853, p. 103, sp. 32. — COUES, in El- 

 liott's Aff. Alaska, p. 199 (1875).— Elliott, Monogr. Seal Isl., p. 133 (1882).— 

 Bissa irevirosiris Lawrence, in Baird's Birds of N. Amer., p. 855. — Dall. &, 

 BANNiST.,Tr. Cbicag.Acad., 1,1869, p. 305.— Finsch, Abh. Brem., Ver., Ill, 

 1872, p. 85.— Dall., Avif. Aleut. Isl. Unal. east, p. 8 (1873). — Nelson, Cruise 

 Corxrhi, p. 105 (1883).— Stejneger, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1883, p. m.—ld., 

 Auk, 1884, p. 358.— Turner, Ank, 1885, p. 158. 



1854. — Bissa kotzeiuii Bonap., Naumannia, 1854, ]}. 212, {nee 1856). 



1860. — Larus icarneki Coinde, Rev. Mag. Zool., 1860, p. 401. 



My specimen is absolutely identical with those from the Prybiloff 

 group. 



The Eed-legged Kittiwake — Krasno-nogaja Gavaruschka — is in every 

 respect, both structurally and in its habits, a true Bissa. Like its 

 black-legged cousin, it only selects steep and inaccessible rocks, and in 

 none of its habits at the breeding-place could I detect any marked dif- 

 ference. They also arrive at the islands about the same time, hatching 

 their young simultaneously with the other species. Those birds which 

 are not engaged in breeding do not seem to straggle about to such an 

 extent, however, as do the black-legged ones, and in fact I never saw 

 a red-legged Kittiwake at any season on the northern part of Bering 

 Island. 



The two species usually keep apart from each other. In the great 

 rookery at Dikij Mys only one solitary red-legged bird was seen among 

 the thousands and thousands of black-feet, while a still greater colony at 

 Gavaruschkaja Buchta consisted of red-legs exclusively, "i?. Tiotzehui 

 [=_R. pollicaris] was observed in countless numbers along the western 

 shore ; but as soon as we had doubled Cape Manatee we met as large 



* Oue will almost invariably find quoted " Bissa brevirostris Bruch." He, however, 

 regarded the names ''Bissa," " Gahianus," " Dominicanus," " Glaucus," «fec., as sub- 

 generic terms (he calls the groups " Familie," not genus), not to be included in the 

 name. In his two monographs nowhere will be found the specific name connected 

 with the subgeneric, but invariably by an " i." as an abbreviation for Larus. See 

 L. Jeucopteriis, L. glacialis, L. consul, L. glaucopterus, under Glavcus ; L, Hartlaubii 

 under Gavia; L. Iridacfylus under Bissa, &c. His own direct remarks (J. f. Orn., 1855, 

 p. 274) are to the same effect and are absolutely conclusive. 



