662 Mr. S. A. Buturlin on the 



Whilst I was engaged in searching through the island, I 

 suddenly observed three small Gulls flying silently about with 

 uneasy strokes of the wing, in a somewhat owl-like manner, 

 and their silence reminded me of Xema sabinii during the 

 spring migration. After a successful right and left shot, 

 the surviving bird became more shy, flying much higher. 

 I missed it once, but after settling several times on the island 

 and on the other side of the lake, the bird (always silent) 

 flew nearer again and was bagged. These were young 

 Rhodostethia rosea, easily identified by the form of the tail, 

 and only one was without the remains of down on the head. 



I did not realize then that these would be the last Rosy Gulls 

 I was to see alive, but so it was. When back in Pokhodskoe 

 (30th July) I heard from my companion Mr. T. A. Shulga, 

 a botanist, that between the 13th and the 18th of July an 

 odd Rosy Gull was seen two or three times in the neighbour- 

 hood (always an adult), and then was lost to view. I visited 

 along with Mr. Shulga all the breeding colonies, even those 

 some fifteen miles distant, but in vain ; and one of the oldest 

 local hunters told me that after about the end of July Rosy 

 Gulls are never seen in the Kolyma delta, as they go to sea 

 with their young while they are still in down. 



And indeed it must be so. July 11th, when I found one 

 of the colonies deserted, was somewhat early for the young 

 to fly ; and should all these swarms of Rosy Gulls migrate to 

 the sea-shore on the wing, my friend Shulga and I, being in 

 different parts of the delta, and every day in the open air, 

 ought to have noticed their migration. Further, on July the 

 7th, having disturbed a colony of Rosy Gulls with the young 

 in down, I noticed a few hours later that the colony was 

 quite deserted (by Rosy Gulls, but not by Sterna paradisea), 

 and that partly swimming, partly on foot, they had gone 

 to the other end of the lake (or rather the chain of swampy 

 lakes), nearly a mile distant. 



This exceedingly early northward migration in the half- 

 downy stage of plumage explains why both young and old 

 Rhodostethia rosea have been observed during August, or even 

 seen after the middle of July, far away from their breeding- 



