106 CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
ground about the seal islands. This gull is also found north at Saint Matthew Island, but there is no 
record of its occurrence beyond this. No examples have been obtained either upon Saint Lawrence 
Island or the adjacent American and Asiatic shores of Bering Sea. It is, however, recorded 
from the Kamtchatkan coast, and undoubtedly occurs about the shores of Okhotsk Sea, north of 
which it is doubtful if it is ever found. 
LARUS GLAUCUS Brinn. 
(148.) THE GLAUCUS GULL. 
This is one of the most widely spread and common Gulls of Bering Sea and the adjoining 
coast of the Arctic. It is largely outnumbered, however, by the Kittiwake Gull, which has a nearly 
similar distribution. At the fur-seal islands Elliott records this large fine bird as restricted in its 
breeding ground to Walrus Islet, although it frequents the larger islands throughout the season, 
and feeds upon the carcasses of the seals left on the killing ground. It was numerous, and 
preparing to nest about the bold headlands and cliffs at Ounalaska, towards the end of May and 
first of June in 1877. During my residence at Saint Michael’s it was found as an abundant 
species, arriving with the first open water in spring, and only retiring when the sea was closed by 
ice in autumn. During the cruise of the Corwin, the summer of 1881, it was found at nearly 
every point visited, among which may be named Kotzebue Sound, Cape Lisburne, Herald Island, 
the northern shore of Siberia, Bering Strait, and Plover Bay, in nearly all of which places it was 
in abundance, or at least a common bird. Its loud, harsh notes and large size render if one of the 
most conspicuous birds of the North. The chosen surroundings of this Gull in Bering Sea, where 
it breeds on all the islands and shores, would scarcely necessitate the well-known name of ice gull, 
which this bird has earned on the North Atlantic coast and adjoining Arctic Sea, where it is so 
well known as the accompaniment of the ice-pack of that region. Here, however, it is content to 
remain farther south, breeding even south to where the fragments of ice rarely, if ever, find their 
way, and from some time in June until the commencement of winter no ice is seen anywhere south 
of Bering Strait. We learn from Nordenskidld that it breeds upon Bear Island, Spitzbergen, and — 
Nova Zemlya, as well as upon the new Siberian Islands, which, with its known range in the 
North Atlantic, shows that the bird seeks a home indifferently either in the high north, where the 
ever present ice-pack covers the sea, or south, where a milder climate and less grim surroundings 
are found, as about the shores of Bering Sea. The Burgomaster, as this bird is sometimes termed, 
in its North Atlantic range was found vesting upon Herald and Wrangel Islands during our visits 
there, and it would be difficult for one to visit any part of the Arctic shores around the entire 
circumpolar region and not meet this gull. It is bold and voracious among its kind, and ruth- 
lessly robs the breeding waterfowl of their eggs or young, which it greedily devours whenever 
opportunity affords. 
LARUS LEUCOPTERUS Faber. 
(149.) GLAUCUS WINGED GULL. 
This species was found with the preceding, and perhaps outnumbering the Glaucus Gull 
upon the Aleutian Islands, in the spring of 1877. They were extremely abundant about the 
various headlands there, and were afterwards found to the north at Saint Michael’s and in Bering 
Strait. Their distribution covers all the shores of Bering Sea, main-land and islands, and extends 
through the Straits along both coasts of the Arctic; but they are less common north of the Straits 
than to the south. At Plover Bay they were quite numerous on June 26, 1831. During the 
explorations of the Western Union Telegraph Company specimens were secured at Sitka and 
others at Kodiak; and the bird is found along the entire west coast of America from California 
north, being of common occurrence along the entire sea-coast of Alaska and the various islands of 
Bering Sea, besides on the Siberian coast. It was found on the shore of the Arctic north to Cape 
Lisburne and Iey Cape, on the American side, and to Cape Serdze Kamen and the vicinity of 
Herald Island on the Siberian side. None were seen at Point Barrow, although they undoubtedly 
occur there. Its habits are almost identical with those of the Glaueus Gull, but it may usually 
be distinguished when in company with the latter by its smaller size. 
