154 Murdoch, A Historical Notice of Ross's Rosy Gull. [Xpril 



by Seebohm, P. Z. S., 1886, p. 82.) There appears to have 

 been more than a little doubt about this egg, though the an- 

 nouncement that was made so confidently has never been defi- 

 nitely contradicted. At all events, Mr. Saunders, in a recent 

 volume of the British Museum Catalogue of Birds, still calls the 

 incubation unknown. This specimen, I take it, is the one in the 

 Seebohm collection in the British Museum. 



In the meantime, though much Arctic work had been done, 

 notably by Jackson and the various Peary expeditions, nothing 

 more was heard of the species until the return of Nansen and 

 the ' Fram,' when we received a really important contribution to 

 our knowledge of the biography of the bird. 



As Nansen and Johansen were approaching Hvidtenland in 

 1895 on their return from their northward dash, they first saw 

 these birds on July 15, and as they drew in towards the land, the 

 Gulls were seen in constantly increasing numbers, though never 

 in anything like the flocks that we saw at Point Barrow. After 

 passing Hvidtenland, which is in lat. 8i° 38' N. and long. 63 E., 

 no more birds were seen, nor was the species found by the 

 Jackson-Harmsworth expedition on Franz Josef Land. 



Nansen very justly inferred that the birds which he saw had 

 bred on Hvidtenland, and he is undoubtedly the first naturalist 

 to discover a breeding ground of the species. During the pre- 

 vious August, eight young birds had been killed alongside the 

 ' Fram,' then somewhere between the New Siberian Islands and 

 Franz Josef Land. 



The last specimen recorded was shot on Bering Island, one of 

 the Russian Seal Islands in Bering Sea, on December 10, 1895. 

 Governor Grebnitski gave the bird to Dr. Stejneger of the 

 National Museum, when the latter visited the island in 1897. 

 The specimen is now in the National Museum. (Stejneger, 

 Auk, vol. XV, p. 183, 1898.) 



It will be seen that we still have much to learn about the 

 habits of the species. I think, however, that certain conclusions 

 can be drawn from the observations that I have just reviewed. 

 We may disregard the occurrence of the bird in the Faeroe Islands, 

 England, Heligoland, St. Michael's and Bering Island. These 

 records can teach us nothing, for the birds were mere stragglers, 



