CUNEATE-TAILED GULL. 559 



Joseph Sabine, Esq. No other examples are known to 

 exist in collections; but Commander Ross, in his Zoologi- 

 cal Appendix to Sir Edward Parry's narrative of his 

 most adventurous boat-voyage towards the Pole, relates 

 that several were seen during the journey over the ice 

 north of Spitzbergen, and that Lieutenant Forster also 

 found the species in Waygait Straits, which is probably 

 one of its breeding-places. It is to Commander James 

 Clark Ross, who killed the first specimen which was ob- 

 tained, that the species is dedicated, as a tribute for his 

 unwearied exertions in the promotion of natural history 

 on the late Arctic voyages, in all of which he bore a part. 

 Of the peculiar habits or winter retreat of this species 

 nothing is known. 



For the knowledge of the occurrence of this very rare 

 Gull in Yorkshire, and its consequent title to be included 

 in a History of British Birds, we are indebted to Mr. 

 Charlesworth, who, in a paper published in the first part 

 of the first volume of the Proceedings of the Yorkshire 

 Philosophical Society, page 33, gave all that was known 

 of this interesting species. 



The capture is authenticated in the following memoran- 

 dum supplied by Sir Wm. Milner, of Nun Appleton : 

 " Ross's Gull was killed by Horner, Lord Howden's head- 

 keeper, in February, 1847, in a ploughed field, near the 

 hamlet of Milford cum Kirby, in the parish of Kirby. 

 Its flight resembled, according to Homer's account, the 

 flight of any other Gull, and it did not seem at all shy." 



Mr. William Macgillivray includes this bird in his 

 Manual of British Ornithology, vol. ii. p. 254, published 

 in 1842, with the remark that " this species has once 

 occurred in Ireland." 



I remember some years ago to have seen a notice in 

 print that this bird had been once taken in Ireland ; but, 



