92 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



lavs three to four well-flavoured esfffs. The soft warm 

 underlayer is, however, not without its incouveiiience ; for 

 Dr. Stuxberg during the voyage of 1875 found in such a nest 

 no fewer than twelve kinds of insects, among them Pulcx 

 vagahundus, Bohem. in nine sj)ecimens, a beetle, a fly, &c. 



The ivory gull, called by Fr. Martens " Rathsherr," the 

 Councillor, is found, as its Swedish name indicates, principally 

 out at sea in the pack, or in fjords filled with drift-ice. It is a 

 true ice-bird, and, it may almost be said, scarcely a water-bird at 

 all, for it is seldom seen swimming on the surface, and it can 

 dive as little as its relatives, the slaucous crull and the kitti wake. 



A. THE KITIIWAKE, 



Swedish, Kryckia. {Lams tridacit,lus. L.) 



B. THE IVOEY GULL. 



Swedish, Ismaos. {Larus eburneus, L.) 



In greed it competes with the fulmar. When any large animal 

 has been killed among the drift-ice, the ivory gull seldom fails to 

 put in an appearance in order to quench its hunger with flesh 

 and blubber. It consumes at the same time the excrements of 

 the seal and the walrus, on which account from three to five 

 ivory gulls may often be seen sitting for a long time round a 

 seal-hole, quiet and motionless, waiting patiently the arrival of 

 the seal (Malmgren). 



The proper breeding places of this bird scarcely appear to be 

 yet known. So common as it is both on the coasts of Spitz- 

 bergen from the Seven Islands to South Cape and on the north 



