2286 PLOVERS, SANDPIPERS, SNIPE, JACANAS, GULLS 



built of seaweed, and generally contain three eggs. The Pacific species, which 

 exhibits a similar variation with regard to the first toe, may be distinguished by its 

 orange-red legs. 



Conspicuous on account of its uniform delicate white plumage, 



faintly suffused with a rosy tint, in marked contrast to which stand 



out the jet-black legs and greenish-yellow beak, the lovely ivory gull (Pagophila 



eburnea~) alone represents a genus characterized by the shortness of the beak, the 



KITTIWAKES NESTING. 



long and slightly-graduated tail, and the connection of the first toe (of which the 

 claw is unusually long) with the metatarsus by means of a distinct web. A cir- 

 cumpolar inhabitant of the Arctic seas, this gull wanders into temperate regions 

 during the winter, its breeding places being in Spitzbergen and other regions in the 

 far north. In contrast to the snowy white of the adult, the young of the ivory gull 

 are conspicuously spotted with black. 



