The Mammalia and Birds of Franz Josef Land. 99 



that date one or two were occasionally observed; and on 

 the 31st four came under notice. On the 1st of August 

 Dr Nansen writes in his diary (p. 283): "It would seem 

 as if the Eoss's Gulls kept to the land here ; we see 

 them almost daily." When nearing the small group of 

 islands, to which the name of Hvidtenland has been given, 

 numbers of these birds were seen, and Dr Nansen remarks 

 (p. 297) : " Yesterday [the 9th of August] we saw a number 

 of them ; they are quite as common here as any other species 

 of Gull." On the following day, when off Liv Island, one 

 of the group, he says (p. 298) : " We could see a strip of 

 bare land along the shore on the north-west side. Was it 

 there, perhaps, the Koss's Gulls congregated, and had their 

 breeding-grounds ? " 



[On the 5th of July 1897, Mr Jackson declared he had 

 seen Eoss's Eosy Gull. He noted the bird flying high up 

 along with some Kittiwakes, and said that it flew into the 

 cliff, at the back of Elmwood, along with them. My opinion 

 is that it was probably a Kittiwake, and I think this bird 

 should not be included in the list of birds seen or captured 

 by the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition. Only one of us 

 saw the bird besides Mr Jackson, and that individual had a 

 good pair of binoculars, which he directed upon the bird. 

 He neither noticed any rosy colour nor the wedge-shaped 

 tail, both of which are distinctive characters. — W. S. B.] 



[?] Larus argentatus, Gmel. 



Nansen, op. cit, ii. pp. 206, 230, 235. 



Dr Nansen, when approaching Franz Josef Land over the 

 ice in June 1895, alludes on three occasions to seeing Gulls, 

 which were "probably Herring- Gulls {Larus argentatus)'' 



The Doctor's surmise was undoubtedly an erroneous one ; 

 for the probability of seeing this species beyond the 82nd 

 parallel of N. latitude is not at all likely. Doubtless the, 

 birds seen were Glaucous Gulls. 



The Herring-Gull is quite unknown to both Spitzbergen 

 and to Novaya Zemlya, and does not occur farther north 

 than the Arctic coast of the European Continent. 



