I48 Murdoch, A Historical Notice of Ross's Rosy Gull. \_£^\ 



few have been taken — but from the published descriptions, the 

 rose color must be as deep as in our brightest specimen. 



The bird was first taken by the famous Arctic explorer Sir James 

 Clark Ross, who at the time was one of the junior officers in 

 Captain Parry's second expedition in search of the Northwest 

 Passage. The first mention of the bird is in Parry's narrative 

 of the voyage, as follows : " Mr. Ross had procured a specimen 

 of a Gull having a black ring round its neck, and which, in its 

 present plumage, we could not find described. This bird was 

 alone when it was killed, but flying at no great distance from a 

 flock of Tern, which latter it somewhat resembles in size as well 

 as in its red legs ; but is on closer inspection easily distinguished 

 by its beak and tail, as well as by a beautiful tint of a most 

 delicate rose-color on its breast" (p. 449). It was shot at 

 Alagnak, Melville Peninsula, on June 23, 1823. At last accounts, 

 this specimen was in the Derby Museum at Liverpool. Four 

 days later, on June 27, one of the other officers shot another 

 specimen at the same place. This was given to the University 

 Museum at Edinburgh. 



Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Richardson, well known as the 

 companion of Sir John Franklin in his earlier explorations, was 

 commissioned to describe the zoological collections made by 

 Captain Parry, and accordingly among other things, published 

 a description of this new Gull in the ' Appendix ' to Captain 

 Parry's journal of a second voyage (1825), giving it the name 

 of Larus rossii. This description was based upon the specimen 

 killed by Ross, which would therefore be the type, were it not 

 that by an unfortunate chance, the species had already received 

 the specific name by which we are obliged to recognize it. 



The circumstances were as follows : While Dr. Richardson was 

 still at work on Captain Parry's collection, the well known 

 ornithologist Macgillivray, who was at the Edinburgh Museum, 

 had occasion to prepare a revision of the genus Larus, which he 

 published in the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society (Vol. V, 1824) 

 under the title ' Description, Characters, and Synonyms of the 

 Different Species of the Genus Larus, with critical and explana- 

 tory Remarks.' In this paper (p. 249) occurs the following 

 passage: "With regard to the tail there are two remarkable . . . 



