Avifauna of Franz Josef Land. 265 



Mr. Bruce's collectiou. These specimens were, strange to 

 relate, obtained on the low-lying ground at Cape Mary 

 Harrasworth on the 7th of August, 1897. Cliffs are usually 

 selected by this bird as nesting-sites. One of the chicks 

 obtained is only a few days old, and the other two, though 

 older, are still in the downy stage. The feet and bills of 

 these young birds strike one as being much coarser and 

 larger than those of other Gulls of the same age. 



Dr. Neale mentions Cape Flora as a nesting-place, but 

 Mr. Bruce tells me that, though seen constantly in some 

 numbers, the Ivory Gull does not breed there ; the only 

 nesting-station known to him being at Cape Mary Harms- 

 worth. Other nesting-places mentioned by Dr. Neale are at 

 Cape Stephen, Bell Island, and Gray Bay ; and according 

 to Mr. Leigh Smith it breeds at May Island, placing its 

 nest on the top of a low basaltic cliff (Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 

 iii. p. 131). 



Dr. Nansen observed this Gull amid the polar ice far to 

 the north-east of Franz Josef Land on the 2nd of June, 1895, 

 when, he tells us, he shot two for food. These birds were 

 afterwards not unfrequently seen by him when he was 

 skirting the land ; and in August they were found along with 

 other birds at the Isles of Hvidtenland. 



Dr. Neale records that in the autumn of 1881 the Ivory 

 Gulls departed from Caj)e Flora at the end of October, 

 and arrived there the following spring on the 20th of April. 

 Dr. Nansen observed them for the first time in 1896 as 

 early as the 12th of Mai'ch, at his winter- quarters on 

 Frederick Jackson Island. 



[This bird was quite abundant in the autumn of 1896 at 

 Cape Flora, and the last entry in my diary for this species 

 was on the 3rd of October, when about twenty Ivory Gulls and 

 several young ones were observed. In the spring of 1897 this 

 bird was first seen on the lOtli of April, when twenty at least 

 were observed in the evening. I do not think that this bird 

 breeds at Cape Flora, and my only experience with the bird 

 as a breeding species is contained in the following account : — 



August 7th. To-day we landed at Cape Mary Harmsworth, 



SER. VII. VOL. IV. T 



