106 CRUISE OF STEAMER COR WIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 



ground about the seal islands. This gull is also found north at Saint Matthew Island, but there is no 

 record of its occurrence beyond this. No examples liave been obtained either upon Saint Lawrence 

 Island or the adjacent American and Asiatic shores of Bering Sea. It is, however, recorded 

 from tlie Kauitchatkan coast, and undoubtedly occurs about the shores of Okhotsk Sea, north of 

 wliich it is doubtful if it is ever found. 



LARUS GLAUC0S Brunn. 



(US.) The Glaucus Gttll. 



TIlis is one of the most widely spread aud common Gulls of Bering Sea and the adjoining 

 coast of the Arctic. It is largely outnumbered, however, by the Kittiwake Gull, which has a nearly 

 similar distribution. At the fur-seal islands Elliott records this large tine bird as restricted in its 

 breeding ground to Walrus Islet, althougli it frequents the larger islands throughout the season, 

 and feeds ujion the carcasses of the seals left on the killing giound. It was numerous, and 

 preparing to nest about the bold headlands and clifi's at Ounalaska, towards the end of May and 

 first of June in 1877. During my residence at Saint Michael's it was found as an abundant 

 species, arriving with the first open water in spring, and only retiring when the sea was closed by 

 ice in autumn. During the cruise of the Corwin, the summer of 1881, it was found at nearly 

 every point visited, among which may be named Kotzebue Sound, Cape Lisburue, Herald Island, 

 the northern shore of Siberia, Bering Strait, and Plover Bay, in nearly all of which places it was 

 in abundance, or at least a common bird. Its loud, harsh notes and large size render it one of the 

 most conspicuous birds of the North. The chosen surroundings of this Gull in Bering Sea, where 

 it breeds on all the islands and shores, would scarcely necessitate the well-known nauje of ice gull, 

 which tliis bird has earned on the North Atlantic coast and adjoining Arctic Sea, where it is so 

 well known as the accompaniment of the ice pack of that region. Here, however, it is content to 

 remain fartlier south, breeding even south to where the fragments of ice rarely, if ever, find their 

 way, and from some time in June until the commencement of winter no ice is seen anywhere south 

 of Bering Strait. We learn from Nordenskiold that it breeds upon Bear Island, Spitzbergen, and 

 Nova Zendya, as well as upon the new Siberian Islands, which, with its known range in the 

 North Atlantic, shows that the bird seeks a home indili'erently either in the high north, where the 

 ever present ice-pack covers the sea, or south, where a milder climate and less grim surroundings 

 are found, as about the shores of Bering Sea. The Burgomaster, as this bird is sometimes termed, 

 in its North Atlantic range was found nesting upon Herald and Wrangel Islands during our visits 

 there, and it would be diflicult for one to visit any part of the Arctic shores around the entire 

 circumpolar region and not meet this gull. It is bold and voracious among its kind, and ruth- 

 lessly robs the breeding waterfowl of their eggs or young, which it greedily devours whenever 

 opportunity affords. 



IiARUS LEUCOPTERUS Faber. 



(149.) Glaucus Winced Gull. 



This species was found with the preceding, and perhaps outnumbering the Glaucus Gull 

 upon the Aleutian Islands, in the spring of 1877. They were extremely abundant about the 

 various headhuids there, and were afterwards found to the north at Saint Miclmel's and in Bering 

 Strait. Their distribution covers all the shores of Bering Sea, main-land and islands, and extends 

 through the Straits along both coasts of the Arctic; but they are less common north of the Straits 

 than to the south. At Plover Bay they were quite numerous on June L'G, 1881. During the 

 explorations of the Western Union Telegraph Company specimens were secured at Sitka and 

 others at Kodiak; and the bird is found along the entire west coast of America from California 

 north, being of common occurreiu;e along the entire sea-coast of Alaska and the various islands of 

 Bering Sea, besides on the Siberian coast. It was found on the shore of the Arctic north to Cape 

 Lisburne and Icy Cape, on the American side, and to Cape Serdze Kamen and the vicinity of 

 Herald Island on the Siberian side. None were seen at Point Barrow, although they undoubtedly 

 occur there. Its habits are almost identical with those of the Glaucus Gull, but it may usually 

 be distinguished when in company with the latter by its smaller size. 



