234 LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS — LONGIPENNES. 



" That this Gull may already be considered a sufficiently established species is not my opinion ; 

 but, on the other hand, I could not well avoid designating it by a separate name, — partly because 

 the differences from L. argentatus seem to me too great to suppose that it is an accidental variety 

 of one of the races of this species, and partly because it has been impossible for me to refer it with 

 any certainty to any other known Gull. In some respects it resembles Audubon's L. occidentalis 

 from the west coast of North America ; and I should be inclined to consider it this, did not Audubon 

 expressly say of his species that it is just as large as L. mariims ('Orn. Biogr.' V. 320). Bruch, 

 to be sure, attributes (' Journal fur Ornithologie,' I. 101) a size to this species which agrees better 

 with the Gull here mentioned ; but how can this discrepancy be reconciled with the size of the two 

 examples whose measurements Audubon gives, and on which he has established the species?" 



In the " Ibis " for 1878, p. 489, are the following remarks by H. Gatke, on a specimen of this 

 Gull obtained in Heligoland on the 20th of August of that year : — 



" The coloration of the back and outer wing-coverts forms an exact middle shade between the 

 slaty black of L. fuscus and the light gray of L. argentatus. The specimen being in the moult for 

 its winter-dress, the marks on the feathers of the neck appear darker than those of any Gull I know 

 of; in fact these arrow-shaped marks may be termed pure black. 



"About the identity of the species no doubt whatever exists, as I have been able to compare 

 the specimen with one of L. affinis in my possession, obtained by Dr. OttoFinsch on the Ob during 

 his recent Siberian excursion." 



The Siberian Herring Gull claims a place in the fauna of North America as a bird 

 of Greenland ■ — in which place, however, it is presumed to be only a rare and occasional 

 visitor. It was first described by Bernhardt in 1853, from an immature specimen 

 that had straggled to Greenland. 



Middendorff met with this species, which he described as a variety of L. argentatus, 

 on the southern shores of the Sea of Okotsk. Immature specimens had previously 

 been taken on the Red Sea and on the Beloochistan coast; but the true specific 

 relations of these birds had remained unexplained until they had been proved to 

 belong to this species. The same is true of birds taken by Hume about Kurrachee, 

 which he mistook for L. occidentalis. 



We know as yet but little of the distinctive habits of this species. Its centre of 

 distribution during the summer appears to be on the Petchora River, while in the 

 winter it wanders to Southern Asia and Northern Africa ; but how much farther is 

 not known. 



Messrs. Henry Seebohm and J. A. Harvie-Brown met with this species on the 

 Petchora. It arrives in its spring migration at Ust-Zylma. about the 11th of May, 

 and breeds on the shores of the delta and the lagoons of the Petchora. Several of 

 its eggs were procured ; but these did not differ from those of the Herring Gull. 

 Nearly all the birds met with on the Petchora were in the adult plumage. 



Wherever a party of fishermen was stationed there were sure to be plenty of these 

 Gulls. They hovered over the nets as they were being dragged in, and frequently 

 secured the small fish as these attempted to escape. 



Mr. Seebohm, in his paper on the Ornithology of Siberia (" Ibis," 1879, p. 162), 

 mentions that they did not find this Gull breeding until after the party had reached 

 latitude 69°. Its geographical distribution, as studied in the Museum of St. Peters- 

 burg, appears to show that it breeds in the extreme north of Europe and in Kam- 

 tschatka. It has been obtained, in the breeding-season, on P>ear Island, south of 

 Solovetsk, in the White Sea, on the Petchora, on the Ob, on the Yenesei, on the 

 Boganida and the Taimyr, near Northeast Cape, and in Kamtschatka. In its spring 

 and autumn migrations it has been found in the Caspian Sea, and at Ayan, in the 

 Sea of Okotsk. Seebohm states that it is described as not being uncommon at St. 

 Michael's, in Alaska ; but this requires confirmation. 



