ROSS GULL; WEDGE-TAILED GULL 



61. Rhodostethia rosea. 13 in. 



Bill short and slender; tail wedge-shaped. Adults in 

 summer. With no hood, but with narrow black collar; 

 mantle light pearl; primaries wholly white with the 

 exception of a blackish outer web to the first one; feet 

 coral red, and underparts tinged with rosy in the nest- 

 ing season. In winter, with no black collar nor pink 

 underparts, and with blackish spot before the eye. 

 Young mixed with blackish 'above, and with a black 

 band across the tip of the tail; feet black; easily dis- 

 tinguished, when in the hand, by the very small bill, 

 and the wedge shaped tail. This gull has the most 

 northern distribution of any known bird, except, pos- 

 sibly, the Knot. Its breeding grounds were first re- 

 ported by Xansen in 1806, in Franz Josef Land. It is 

 one of the rarest birds in collections. 



Range. Polar regions, south in winter to Point Bar- 

 row, Alaska, and Disco Bay, Greenland. 



