THE BIRDS OF SPITSBERGEN. 255 
wonderfully dexterous way, ere it reached the sea. Just 
as he secured it, the Burgomasters closed in on him; he 
dashed off nimbly, but his two enemies with their enormous 
spread of wing flew quite as fast, and keeping always above 
him, so bustled and worried him that, after flying some half- 
mile or so, he reluctantly dropped his booty, leaving the 
two gulls to quarrel over it. 
20. RHODOSTETHIA ROSEA, MacGil.—Ross’s rosy Gull. 
Has undoubtedly occurred in Spitsbergen, though strangely 
enough omitted from most lists. For the evidence of 
Ross, the discoverer of the species (who is surely a com- 
petent observer), see Yarrell’s British Birds, 4th edition, 
vol. ili. p. 581. 
21, XEMA SABINII (J. Sabine)—Sabine’s Gull. 
Sabine, the discoverer, shot two specimens of this gull in 
Spitsbergen. See Yarrell’s British Birds, 4th edition, vol. iii. 
p. 576; also Ibis, January 1900, p. 213. 
*22. PAGOPHILA EBURNEA (Phipps).—Ivory Gull. 
I saw one specimen of this lovely gull as our steamer 
dropped anchor at Advent Bay on July 22, but, curiously 
enough, I never saw another, though it is by no means a 
rare bird. Its strongholds and chief breeding places are on 
the Hinloopen Straits; while a large colony was discovered 
in 1898 on Abel Island, one of the Wiches Islands. See 
Ibis, January 1900, p. 213. 
*23, RISSA TRIDACTYLA (Linn. ).—Kittiwake, 
I do not need to say much about this common British 
bird. It has many large breeding colonies in Spitsbergen. 
A great number breed on the Vogelberg cliffs, curiously 
enough, not over the sea, but on the upper series of inland 
cliffs which rise from the grassy slope which crowns the sea- 
precipice. I climbed to several of their nests on July 25, 
and found that all had young at that date. This bird 
in Spitsbergen is very tame, and along the seashore comes 
almost within arm’s-length of the passer-by. 
