V °'«99 VI ] Murdoch, .4 Historical Notice of Ross's Rosy Gull 1 55 



driven out of their regular course by stress of weather, or some- 

 thing of the sort. Somewhat more significant is the record from 

 Disco, where the bird appears to occur with a certain regularity. 



The home of the bird is plainly in some high northern latitude, 

 and is evidently not to be looked for north of Smith Sound, for 

 that region has been thoroughly explored and yet the bird has 

 never been seen north of Disco. The comparatively large num- 

 bers seen by Newcomb and Nansen, as well as the occurrence of 

 the species in the Lena Delta, seem to show that it is really at 

 home in the region between Hvidtenland and Wrangel Island, 

 but the enormous numbers of these birds seen at Point Barrow 

 prove, to my mind, that the main centre of the species is some- 

 where in that region. 



Now, it is well known that there is very strong evidence in 

 favor of the belief that there is a large island not far north of 

 Point Barrow, and I believe that this Keenan Island, as it has 

 been called by our American geographers, is the main breeding 

 ground of the Rosy Gull. That eggs will be found on Hvidten- 

 lind, I have no doubt, and a breeding colony will doubtless be 

 found on Bennett Island, but the naturalist who reaches Keenan 

 Island in the proper season will be able to do as well for his 

 museum with the eggs of this bird as we did with the skins. 



Almost nothing can be stated positively about the habits of 

 the species. Unquestionably, the flocks that travelled by us 

 toward the northeast were not migrating, for their course led 

 them into the very face of the approaching winter, and away 

 from the open water where food could be procured. They must 

 have been simply wandering aimlessly against the wind, and 

 probably worked back again farther off shore when the wind 

 changed. As far as I know, the bird has never been seen except 

 on the wing, and I fancy that it is a good deal of a wanderer. In 

 all probability, like the polar whale, it spends most of its lifetime 

 about the loose edge of the pack ice well out at sea, coming down 

 into the stormy ocean in winter, and in summer retiring to its 

 inaccessible breeding grounds in the far North. However, this 

 is, as yet, only a plausible hypothesis, and I believe that the life 

 history of this beautiful bird will not be wholly understood until 

 the region north of Point Barrow has been thoroughly explored. 



