66o WEDGE-TAILED GULL. 



on the Chukchi Peninsula, Bering Strait, in July 1879. In October 

 of the same year, Newcomb, naturalist to the ill-fated ' Jeannette,' 

 killed eight off the north-east of Siberia, and during the fearful 

 march of the starving, shipwrecked crew to the Lena, he saved 

 three skins by carrying them inside his shirt beneath his belt ; 

 and a few others have since been obtained at the mouth of the 

 above river. The American Expedition to Point Barrow in Alaska 

 found this species during September and October of the years 1S81 

 and of 1882 in large numbers, pointing to the probability of there 

 being an important breeding-place somewhere to the northward of 

 Wrangel Island. An adult was obtained on Bering Island in De- 

 cember 1895 ; jMr. E. Nelson procured a bird at St. Michaels, Alaska ; 

 and an example in breeding-dress, one of two sent from Disco, 

 Greenland, in 1885, was presented by the late Mr. Seebohm to the 

 British Museum. In August 1894, Dr. Nansen's party in the ' Fram ' 

 obtained eight birds of the year in about lat. 81" N. and long. 130" 

 E. ; while in July and August 1895 the intrepid explorer observed 

 many adults, especially round four islands named Hvitenland, in 

 lat. 81° N. and long. 63° E., doubtless a breeding-place. 



Statements that the egg had been taken with the Disco birds in 

 1885 (P.Z.S. 1886, p. 82 ; Auk 1886, p. 273) are unconfirmed, and 

 the circumstances, description, and a coloured photograph of the 

 egg in question, all indicate that it was probably that of Sabine's 

 Gull. Until the above appearance of flocks at Point Barrow, only 

 23 specimens of the bird were ascertained to be in existence. The 

 flight is described as peculiarly graceful and wavering ; the cry is 

 compared to that of the Wryneck by Dr. Nansen. A bird which he 

 shot vomited two shrimps. 



The adult in summer has head and neck white, with a few black 

 feathers near the eye, and a narrow collar of the same colour ; 

 otherwise the head, neck, and entire under-parts are white, suffused 

 with rose-colour ; mantle pale pearl-grey : outer web of first primary 

 black, secondaries and inner primaries grey, tipped with rosy-white ; 

 tail wedge-shaped and pure white ; bill black (even smaller than 

 represented in the engraving) ; legs and feet red. Length 13*5 in. ; 

 wing 10-25 in. In winter there is no black collar. By September 21st 

 the young bird is pearl-grey on the crown and nape as well as on 

 the mantle, though the wing-coverts, inner secondaries, and rump are 

 barred with buff-tipped umber-brown ; the three outer primaries are 

 black on both sides of the shafts, and all up to the 7th are tipped 

 or barred with the same colour ; the central and projecting feathers 

 of the tail are terminally banded with blackish-brown. 



