IVORY GULL. 659 



Murchisou Bay, lat. 80" N., long. 18'' 30' E., where he found 

 a number of birds established on the lower niches and clefts 

 of a limestone precipice at a height of from 50 to 100 feet. 

 It was not until the 30th July that two nests were reached 

 and proved to be shallow depressions lined with dry plants, 

 grass, moss, and a few feathers. Each contained one much 

 incubated egg, which, with the females, are in the Stock- 

 holm Museum. Another egg, from Hinlopen Strait, is in 

 the collection of Mr. Benzon of Copenhagen. 



North of Spitsbergen, Parry observed the Ivory Gull as 

 far as he went on his boat voyage ; and Mr. Leigh Smith 

 obtained several young birds on his cruise, in 1880, to the 

 shores of Franz-Josef Land ; he also observed many breed- 

 ing-places on his second voyage in 1881, when his yacht 

 ' Eira ' had to be abandoned. In Novaya Zemlya the 

 Ivory Gull has proved to be abundant up to 78'^ N. lat. ; and 

 Baron Nordenskiold observed it at various points along the 

 shores of Siberia. When frozen up at Pitlekaj, an imma- 

 ture specimen was obtained as late in the year as the 

 21st of November, having been offered by the Chukches as 

 a Ptarmigan ; and when Nordenskiold eagerly purchased the 

 bird, a smile of satisfaction at the success of his trick passed 

 over the countenance of the seller. In the summer this 

 bird became quite frequent ; it was also observed by the 

 naturalist of the ' Jeaunette ' in the vicinity of Bennett 

 Island, on the 29th of July, 1881 ; also in June and July, 

 1880, during the drift of the ill-fated vessel, and on the 

 4th September, 1879, off Herald Island. We have now 

 traced the range of this species to the Asiatic side of Bering- 

 Sea, but there is as yet no record of its occurrence down 

 the Pacific coast of North America ; although, continuing 

 eastward along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, we find a 

 record by Eichardson of a pair found breeding in about 

 122° W. long. To the north and east of this point the 

 Ivory Gull has been observed on almost all the Arctic 

 expeditions ; and Sir Leopold M'Clintock obtained a single 

 egg from a nest on Prince Patrick's Island, in 77" 25' N. lat., 

 long. 116" ^^'. The parent bird was thoroughly identified, 



