CUNEATE-TAILED GULL. 581 



The species was also observed at Felix Harbour, Boothia. 

 Ptoss, in his Zoological Appendix to Sir Edward Parry's 

 narrative of his adventurous boat-voyage towards the Pole, 

 relates that several were seen during the journey over the 

 ice north of Spitsbergen, and that Lieutenant Forster also 

 found the species in Waygatz (i.e. Hinlopen) Strait — not to 

 be confounded with Waigatz Island to the south of Novaya 

 Zemlya — but specimens were not obtained. Professor Malm- 

 gren, who did not meet with it at Spitsbergen, has expressed 

 his doubts as to the correctness of the identification, but upon 

 this point the testimony of PtOss and Parry, who certainly 

 knew this Gull better than any men then living, is clear. In 

 Parry's Narrative (p. 81) the words are, " We saw in the 

 course of this journey [13th July, 1827, lat. 82° 17' N.] 

 one of the very beautiful gulls first discovered by Lieut. 

 Pioss at Arlagnuk [sic] in our voyage of 1823, and named in 

 compliment to him Lariis Rossii.'^ On 16th July, lat. 82° 26' 

 N., " We saw during the last journey a second Ptoss gull " 

 (p. 87) ; and again, on their return, August 2nd, in 82° 6' 

 N. lat., 17° 45' E. long. — " We saw five or six birds, amongst 

 others two Ross gulls, during this journey" (p. 110). It 

 is impossible to throw over such evidence merely because 

 later visitors to Spitsbergen have not observed the species ; 

 and the correctness of these distinguished Arctic explorers is 

 confirmed by the fact that the Austro-Hungarian expedition 

 obtained a specimen off the newly-discovered Franz-Josef 

 Land, although it was lost when the 'Tegetthoff' was 

 abandoned. Nordenskiold's expedition obtained a bird of 

 the second year on the 1st July, 1879, just before the 

 ' Vega ' was freed from her winter quarters off the Chukch 

 Peninsula; and Mr, Newcomb, of the ill-fated * Jeannette,' 

 shot no less than eight specimens off North-eastern Siberia, 

 after the middle of October, 1879. Three of these, together 

 with a bird in the spotted plumage of the first year, shot in 

 October near St. Michael's, Alaska, by Mr. E. Nelson, are 

 now in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington (Cruise 

 of the 'Corwin ' p. 108). In the Copenhagen Museum there 

 are three from Disco Bay, Greenland ; a fourth from the 



