160 



wing. Their legs are black and are generali}' drawn up, so that 

 they are invisible. The whole habitus of the Kittiwake is slenderer. 

 Young ones are readily recognizable by the dark stripe on their wings. 



Pagophila eburnea (Phipps), the Ivory Gull. 



Pagophila eburnea (Phipps), Trevor Battye (1897), p. 592. 

 PagopJiila eburnea (Phipps), Kolthoff (1903), p. 63. 

 Gavia alba (Gunn.), Schalow (1904), p. 135. 

 PagopJiila ebunieus (Phipps), le Roi (1911), p. 183. 

 Gavia alba Gunn., Zedlitz (1911), p. 309. 



cf , Dutch Settlement near Cape Boheman, July 12, 1921. 



Like Polar bear and Arctic fox the Ivory Gull is a true inhabitant 

 of the extreme North. In Spitsbergen it is of rather frequent occur- 

 rence. Their breeding haunts seem to vary strongly: they feed 

 principally on the excrements of seals of which the presence is 

 confined to the ice and so the Ivory Gull is mostly found in the 

 neighbourhood of ice-fields. 



In Icefjord, where no ice-fields occur in summer normaliter, 

 these Gulls are to be seen regularly, however, near the glaciers, 

 where seals are always found on the icebergs. In the last days of 

 June and the first half of July I regularly saw one or two specimens 

 of the Ivory Gull near our settlement. The rather frequent occur- 

 rence in this place, where no ice was to be found, can be explained 

 by the fact that the Ivory Gulls, flying from one glacier to the 

 other, passing Cape Boheman, could always find some offal at our 

 settlement. 



The splendid, entirely white bird with its ternlike flight, with 

 its yellow and red bill and its black legs, feeds on seal-excrements 

 and garbage, as well as on fish and plankton-organisms, according 

 to Römer and Schaudinn (1900, p. 73). After the middle of July 

 they were much less common near Cape Boheman. Only near the 

 glaciers they could still be found. So I saw two specimens on Aug. 9 

 near the Bore Glacier. 



In other parts of Icefjord I did not see many Ivory Gulls. On 

 July 14 we saw (O.E.) a specimen in Klaas Billen Bay near Ebba 

 Valley. Like Rissa the Ivory Gull breeds on high cliffs ; in the northern 

 and eastern part of Spitsbergen, where it is much more common 

 than in West-Spitsbergen, it is also found breeding on flat islands. 



