104 CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
17, 1879. It was, perhaps, this species in place of the Violet-green Cormorant which was noted 
by us to the north of this cape about Wrangel and Herald Islands, as well as at Cape Béanfort on 
the north shore of Alaska and one or two other points along the Arctic shore of this territory. 
This species is well known as a resident upon the fur-seal islands, where Elliott found them 
remaining throughout the winter, despite the severity of the storms and cold at various times. 
It serves as a dainty morsel for the resident Aleuts upon these islands during the winter, 
when other kinds of fresh meat are not procurable. According to Elliott it nests some weeks in 
advance of the other water fowl, and builds a large structure upon a jutting shelf along the face 
of the cliffs. These birds have from three to four eggs, and the young come from the shell almost 
without feathers, but grow rapidly under the care of the old birds. He notes the great amount 
of curiosity possessed by these birds at the appearance of any unusnal object which approaches 
the vicinity of their nesting places or feeding grounds. This appears to hold everywhere. I have 
rarely visited the haunts of Cormorants without their circling around and around, although 
sometimes so shy as to keep well beyond gunshot. Their curiosity appears to bring them in the 
ueighborhood of the objects of their suspicion again and again. We found this bird quite 
numerous in the vicinity of Unalaska Island on our arrival there the last of September, 1881. In 
the spring of 1877 it was also rather common about the harbors at that place. It is a resident 
throughout the Aleutian Islands, according to Dall. These birds appear to be a fitting accompa- 
niment of the bleak, barren coast found so frequently along the northern shore of Bering Sea. 
The dark cliffs, with scarcely a trace of vegetation, and the cold rocks, perhaps relieved here and 
there by banks of snow in the ravines, are rendered still more wild and inhospitable in appearance 
by the presence of these large, awkward somber-colored birds, which circle silently back and forth 
in front of their cliffs, fitting habitants of the remote and cheerless wilds where their home is made. 
LARIDA. GULLS, TERNS. 
PAGOPHILA EBURNEA (Phipps) Kaup. 
(145.) THE Ivory GULL. 
There is no record of this bird’s occurrence anywhere in Bering Sea, but Nordenskidld found 
this gull quite frequent during the time of his stay on the northeastern shore of Siberia at Tapkan, 
and noted them at various points around the northern shore of Asia during his voyage through 
that region. It is found quite commonly about Spitzbergen and Nova Zemyla, where it keeps in 
the vicinity of the shore, and in winter is frequently seen standing near the seal-holes in the ice 
waiting for the seal to appear, the cause of this being its habit of devouring that animal’s excre- 
ment. It is abundant in this region and off the high northern latitudes of America, but very few 
of its nests have been found thus far, one by McClintock, at Cape Krabbe, in North America, in 
latitude 77° 25/ north, and again by Malmgren, at Murchinson Bay, in Spitzbergen, in latitude 
82° 2/ north. The two nests found by Malmgren consisted of a depression from twenty-five to 
twenty-six centimeters in diameter in a heap of loose gravel on a ledge of a sloping limestone wall. 
Each nest contained one egg, which on the 50th of July already contained a down-covered bird. 
Murehinson Bay was covered with ice at the time these nests were observed. On September 4, 
1879, this bird was seen off Herald Island by the naturalist of the Jeannette, and again in the 
middle of June; and in July, 1880, a number of these birds were seen, and at various other times 
during the drift of this ill-fated vessel. In the vicinity of Bennett Island on July 29, 1881, they 
were again seen, and were probably nesting there. 
There is no North Pacific coast record of this species, and it appears to be a winter resident in 
high latitudes, not passing south beyond the ice limit, except very rarely, when, as in a few 
instances, it has been taken along the coast of Maine, in eastern North America, and perhaps as 
far south as Massachusetts On the west coast of America we possess no such southern records, 
and it is doubtful if it ever passes south of the Aleutian chain, although as yet we do not possess 
a record of the bird south of Bering Straits. It is one of the most beautiful of the gulls, and any 
addition to our knowledge of its biography will be a welcome contribution to northern ornithology. 
