i6o GULL GROUP 



broadly distinguished by the distinctl}- forked tail ; while the wing is 

 relatively long and the hind-toe very small. Greenland and Alaska 

 are well-known nesting-haunts of the present species, where its food 

 consists largely of such insect-larvre and crustaceans as are to be met 

 with in the brackish water-pools of the marshes, supplemented by 

 sticklebacks. Towards the end of August these small gulls forsake 

 the marshes for the coasts, where the\- may be seen feeding between 

 tide-marks. 



In summer the head and neck are lead-grey in colour, deepening 

 on the neck into black, so as to form a collar ; the back and wing- 

 coverts are light slate-grey ; the quills black broadly tipped with 

 white ; the greater wing-coverts and secondaries also white-tipped ; the 

 rest of the plumage white ; the beak black tipped with yellow, the 

 rims of the eyelids vermilion, the eyes brown, and the legs black. The 

 difference between the summer and winter plumage consists in the loss 

 of the black on the head and neck, where, however, dark streaks 

 persist on the nape, coalescing to form a greyish-black area. Young 

 birds are ash-grey above barred with brown and white, and have a 

 patch of brown on each side of the breast, and a black bar across the tip 

 of the tail. Thirteen inches is the length of the adult. 



Only two eggs are laid, these being dark olive-brown in colour 

 with somewhat indistinct reddish-brown spots, and still more obscure 

 underlying markings of grey. The nest, of which several are often 

 found in proximity, is little more than a slight depression in the 

 ground. 



An even more exclusively Arctic species is Ross's gull 

 {Rhodostethia rosea), also known as the rosy gull, from the colour of 

 the under-parts, and as the wedge-tailed gull, from the shape of the 

 tail-feathers. A single example, now in the Leeds Museum, is stated 

 to have been taken in Yorkshire in 1846 or 1847 ; but, in view of the 

 non-migratory habits of the species, the record seems very doubtful. 

 This gull nests in the Kolyma Delta, north-east Siberia. 



„ „ The claims of the ivory-gull, which is another cir- 

 Ivory-Gull , , • • 1 .1 i . .• 



cumpolar Arctic species and the only representative 



of its eenus, to a place in the list of British birds, 

 eburnea). , '^ -.i .u r o i • . n 



are about on a par with those ot babine s gull, 



something over forty examples having been recorded from the British 

 Isles during the past century. More than a dozen of these records are 

 from Scotland and the Isles, but specimens have been taken in Corn- 

 wall and Sussex, and Ireland claims eight. The ivor}--gull is a small 



