644 WEDGE-TAILED GULL. 



In October of the same year Mr. Newcomb, naturalist to the ill- 

 fated ' Jeannette,' killed eight off North-eastern Siberia, and during 

 the fearful march of the shipwrecked crew to the Lena, he saved 

 three specimens by carrying them inside his shirt beneath his belt — 

 flattened shapeless skins which I handled with reverence at Washing- 

 ton, for such an instance of bull-dog tenacity is unparalleled in the 

 annals of collecting. A few others have since been obtained at 

 the mouth of the Lena, but it was reserved for the American 

 expedition to Point Barrow in Alaska to find this species during 

 September and October of 1S81 and of 1882 in large numbers; 

 pointing to the probability of there being an important breeding-place 

 on some undiscovered land to the northward of Wrangel Island or 

 thereabouts, and perhaps in the Liakoff Islands. Mr. E. Nelson 

 procured a bird at St. Michaels. Alaska, and a fine adult — one of 

 two sent from Disco in Greenland in 18S5 — has been presented 

 by Mr. Seebohm to the British Museum. Not only are some rash 

 statements that the egg had been taken at the same time as the latter 

 (P.Z.S. 1886, p. 82 ; Auk 1886, p. 273) unconfirmed, but the cir- 

 cumstances, the description, and a coloured photograph of the egg 

 in question all indicate that it was probably that of Sabine's Gull. 



The breeding-habits of this small species— often called Ross's 

 Gull, after its discoverer the late Sir James C. Ross — are still un- 

 known ; and until the above appearance of flocks at Point Barrow, 

 only 23 specimens were ascertained to be in existence. The flight 

 is described as peculiarly graceful and wavering ; I can find no 

 details respecting the food. 



The adult in summer has the under parts white, suffused with rose 

 or salmon colour ; head and neck white, with a (ew black feathers 

 near the eye, and a narrow collar of the same colour ; mantle pale 

 pearl-grey ; outer web of first primary black, secondaries and inner 

 primaries tipped with rosy-white ; tail wedge-shaped and pure white ; 

 bill black (even smaller than represented in the engraving) ; legs and 

 feet red. Length 13-5 in. ; wing 10 in. In winter there is no black 

 collar. By September 21st the young bird is greyish on the crown 

 and nape as well as on the mantle, though the wing-coverts and 

 inner secondaries are still umber-brown with pale margins ; the 

 three outer primaries are black on both sides of the shafts, and 

 all up to the 7th are tipped or barred with the same colour ; the 

 central — and projecting— feathers of the tail are broadly banded with 

 brownish-black. 



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