Ißß A. L. V. Manniche. 



by a 25 cm. broad ring, carefully made of rather large compact pie- 

 ces of moss kept together by a few long straws. As the environs 

 of the nests were absolutely without any vegetation, the Gulls must 

 have fetched the materials from another place on the island, where 

 this species of moss growls very luxuriantly. In the nests were found 

 a few feathers lost by the breeding birds. They were — except tw^o 

 which were lying close to each other — evenly distributed over the 

 area mentioned. 



No Ivory-Gull appeared either this time or during my visit to 

 the island four days later. 



Like other sw^immers this species did not nest on Renskæret in the 

 summer of 1907. This fact was due to the unfavourable ice conditions. 



During the navigation through the pack-ice — as well on the 

 voyage outwards as homewards — I almost every day observed 

 some Ivory-Gulls; they used to pass the ship solitary or in small 

 flocks containing 3 to 4 birds. Like the Glaucous Gulls they would 

 often settle on the hummocks of ice. 



Though the Ivory Gulls cannot be said to be shy, they were 

 in the ice rather cautious and not so forward by far as were the 

 Fulmars. While these would exhibit great fearlessness and snatch 

 pieces of blubber thrown out, the Ivory-Gulls would always keep 

 at a distance and not strike for the morcels before the ship was a 

 little way off; they would only overcome their fear if one of their 

 companions was shot, from a far circumference they would then 

 assemble around their killed companion even if exposed to a violent 

 gun fire. 



When the ship was stopped by the pack-ice and obliged to 

 keep quiet surrounded by interminable flakes of ice the Ivory-Gulls 

 — besides a solitary Fulmar — w^ere the only birds that visited us. 

 This pretty bird with its short but sonorous note would make a 

 wonderfully animating impression in these silent and desolate sur- 

 roundings. Outside 'the border of the ice this species was not re- 

 corded farther South than lat. 74^30' n. long. 3°15'w. The majority 

 of the Ivory-Gulls observed in the ice w^ere immature birds in moult. 

 Round the base of the bill the feathers were dirty-grey and the edge 

 of the wings was dark. Yet a couple of pure white old birds was 

 shot here. In the stomachs examined I usually found a few^ thin 

 bones of fishes and remains of crustaceans. 



One stomach contained remains of a seal certainly Phoca foe- 

 tida; in another — belonging to a bird killed July 30"^ 1908 in the 

 pack-ice lat. 75° n. long. 9" 40' w. — was found larvæ of Chirono- 

 midœ, mandibles of an insect larva and some particles of Chitin. 

 This stomach also contained a great quantity of parasitic worms. 



