International Fisheries Exhibition. 349 



correspondent of the '^New York Herald ' of May 17th, 1882, 

 writing from Irkntsk on 6th March, Mr. Newcomb, the 

 naturalist to the ill-fated ' Jeannette/ obtained five examples 

 of this small Gull at or near Herald Island ; and Capt. Collins, 

 of the American Section, informs me that he believes these 

 were saved from the wreck, and finally reached the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, which has recently secured or received 

 news of six specimens from Alaska. As it was obtained by 

 the Austro-Hungarian Expedition on Franz-Josef Land, this 

 species is now shown to be circumpolar. There is another 

 Gull in the collection about which a few words may be said, 

 and that is the adult specimen of Larus cachinnans, cata- 

 logued as L. argentatus, var, occidentalis, Schl. It may be L. 

 occidentalis apud Schlegel ; but it is most assuredly not the 

 species to which Audubon first applied that name, and which 

 alone has the right to it. As errors die hard, and it was only 

 the other day that my old enemy was recorded under this 

 name from China (Ibis, 1882, p. 436), I may repeat, what 

 has already been stated in detail (P. Z. S. 1878, pp. 171-172), 

 that L. occidentalis, Audubon, is, for a member of this group 

 of Herring-Gulls, a very well-marked species, which has only 

 been obtained on the Pacific coast of North America. 



The examples of Limicolce are interesting as showing their 

 geographical distribution. For instance, I do not remember 

 that Eudromias morinellus has previously been recorded from 

 so far east as the ' Vegans ' winter-quarters ; but the great 

 attraction is the Spoonbilled Sandpiper {Eurynorhynchus 

 pygmceus), so rare in collections, but so common in spring in 

 the vicinity of the ' Vega ' that it was twice served in some 

 numbers at the gunroom table, for which, as Nordenskiold 

 observes, many reproaches had subsequently to be endured 

 by the partakers in the costly feast. This remarkable wader 

 has been figured and described in detail by Mr. J. E. Hartiug 

 (Ibis, 1869, pp. 426-434, pi. xii.) ; but although fourteen 

 years have elapsed since he wrote, the only real addition to 

 our knowledge of its habitat consists in the fact that it visits 

 Japan and passes through North-eastern Siberia on its way 

 to some breeding-grounds as yet undiscovered. 



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