Arctic Expedition of 1900-1903. 515 



numbers of birds, chiefly flocks of Rissa tridactyla and 

 Rhodostethia rosea, the latter being almost exclusively young, 

 in consequence of which Mr. Birulia believed that they must 

 have bred on Bennett Island. This Gull was not seen near 

 tlie islands of the New Siberian Archipelago in the summer, 

 but in the autumn, after the nesting-season, large numbers 

 of old. and young birds appeared in flocks keeping to the 

 boundary of the floating ice. In 1902 Mr. Birulia saw the 

 first young bird on New Siberia on the 3rd/16tli August 

 and the lirst flock of old birds on the 23rd Aug./5th Sept. 

 Larger flocks were seen in the Straits of Blagovestchensk on 

 the 29th Aug./llth Sept., where they were ver}'^ shy and 

 wary ; a fortnight later large numbers of Rosy Gulls were 

 seen on New Siberia, and the last were met witli near Cape 

 Rojin on the 7th/20th September. 



Pagophila eburnea was not common on the north coasts 

 of the mainland of Siberia and was only seen on four or 

 five occasions late in the autumn after the first frosts had 

 set in. Two adults and one young bird were first seen in 

 the Bay of Kolomcitseff, near the Western Taimyr, on tiie 

 8th/21st September, and on the 26th Sept. /9th Oct. a single 

 bird approached the ' Sarja.' None were seen during the 

 next summer until the 13th/26th August, and in 1901, as the 

 vessel was passing along the north coast of the East Taimyr, 

 one was observed on the 20th of August, old style. In 1902 

 an old bird was first seen on the Island of New Siberia on 

 the 26th Aug./8th Sept., and two or three days later a pair 

 approached Mr. Birulia''s hut, on each occasion a young 

 and an old bird. The old birds were wary, but the young 

 were very inquisitive, and both of them were shot. They 

 had the rings round the eyes and the legs black. It 

 would seeai, therefore, that this Gull breeds on one of the 

 islands of the De Long Group, north of the New Siberian 

 Archipelago, 



Tringa rninuta. — In 1900 large numbers of Little Stints 

 were seen during the passage from the Yugorski Shar to 

 Middendorff Bay, and during the summer on the Western 

 Taimyr near the roadstead Sarja. Mr, Birulia found the 



