Breeding-grounds of the Rosy Gull. 133 



and the following days Geese, Swans, Ducks, Gulls (Larus 

 vegce and (?) L. glaucescens), and Waders (especially Tringa 

 maculata, T. subarquata, T. sakhalina, Phalaropus fulicarius, 

 and Cliaradrius fulvus) migrated in great numbers. At last, 

 on May the 30th, it rained, while the thermometer varied 

 between 16°Cels. above zero and as much below; snow 

 became scanty on the open places, and the first Rosy Gull 

 was reported*. On the morning of May the 31st one of my 

 men saw a pair, and during the day I went on the river — 

 where the fathom-thick ice was still quite safe — and came 

 across several dozens. The sun was shining brightly, and 

 in the distance each pair appeared like so many roseate 

 points on the bluish ice of the great stream. I say "pair," 

 as from their first arrival the birds were constantly seen in 

 pairs. They had evidently just finished their migration and 

 were tired after their exertions ; for they sat very quietly 

 on the ice, and though all attempts to stalk them were 

 unavailing, they would not fly far, but only shifted from 

 place to place with a lazy and somewhat uneasy motion of 

 their wings, which made me jot down in my notebook 

 on the spur of the moment that the flight was more Fulmar- 

 like than Gull-like. 



Several hours later they had evidently recovered from 

 their fatigues, and then I saw that their flight, far from being 

 Fulmar-like, was really much more Tern-like. They became 

 quite easy of approach, even more so than the Terns, and I 

 was able to observe them and procure specimens when I 

 wished. On this and several following days they were always 

 to be found on a little shallow lake, some 200 fathoms long 

 and 50 to 70 wide, formed by the melted snow running partly 

 off the river-ice and partly off the sand of the little island. 

 The place was full of life when undisturbed ; plenty of 

 Geese, some Swans, flocks of Fuligula marila and F. glacialis, 

 pairs of Anas formosa, clouds of both species of Phalarope, 



* It is called here the "Rosy Gall" or "Little Collared Gull" indif- 

 ferently — in Russian, as the delta of the Kolyma, is the only place in 

 N.E. Siberia that I visited where the Russian and not the Yakut 

 language is in common use. 



