1861.] MR. A. NEWTON ON RARE BIRd's EGGS. 401 



like the present specimen. For this reason, therefore, I am chiefly 

 inclined to trust in it. At the same time I am bound to say that, 

 until a few days ago, I never heard of but one instance of the Ivory 

 Gull's nest having been found in Spitzbergen. In 1854 a veteran 

 walrus-hunter told IMr. WoUey that he believed it bred in the north- 

 east of the country, and even indicated the spot by name — Porro- 

 vara (i. e. Reindeer Hill). But in most years the ice keeps vessels 

 off that part of the coast until August, when, of course, it is too late 

 for eggs. From another source I learn that the uaturaUst of the 

 Swedish Arctic Expedition which last summer was examining the 

 Spitzbergen seas is said to have obtained in July some eggs of the 

 Ivory Gull, hard sat-on. I hope, therefore, shortly to be able to 

 bring before the Society a better-authenticated specimen. 



Forked-tailed Gull. 



Xema sabini, Leach. 



The ruins of an egg of this rare Gull were sent me by Dr. Bal- 

 damus. He obtained it from Von Middendorff, who found the spe- 

 cies on the lakes of the tundras and the little islets at the moutli of 

 the Taimyr, breeding abundantly in company with the Arctic Tern 

 {Sterna macrura, Naum.), as Gen. Sabine had done twenty years 

 previously on the islands in Melville Bay. He gives also a figure of 

 an egg ('Sib. Reise,' II. ii. p. 244, t. 25. f. 1). Whether any spe- 

 cimens were brought home by the first discoverer of this species I 

 do not know ; if so, it is probable they are no longer in existence, 

 though it is clear, from the accounts given (' Linn. Trans.' xii. 

 p. 520), that many might have been procured. I am not aware that 

 any of the later Arctic voyagers obtained others ; nor has greater suc- 

 cess attended the Greenland correspondents of the Danish naturalists. 



PoMERiNE Skua. 



Lestris pomerinus, Temminck. PI. XXXIX. fig. 3. 



I am again indebted to Dr. Baldamus for one of the specimens of 

 this egg that I now exhibit. It was sent to him by Von Midden- 

 dorff, who states (' Sib. Reise,' II. ii. p. 240) that the bird breeds 

 in especial abundance on the tundras adjoining the river Taimyr. 

 He found the first eggs on the 7th July in latitude 74° N., two 

 lying on the moor without any nest ; and in his work (t. 24. f. 1) he 

 gives a representation of a specimen. Other examples in my collec- 

 tion I have obtained from Pastor Theobald and (yonservator Con- 

 radsen of Copenhagen, whither they were sent from the Danish 

 settlement in Greenland ; but these are not so fully identified as my 

 Siberian specimen, which forms the subject of the accompanying 

 illustration. 



In June 1855, INIr. Simpson and myself observed off Berlevaag, 

 a promontory east of the North Cape, large flocks of this species. 

 On our return a few weeks afterwards with Mr. Wolley, we again 

 saw them. In 1857, that gentleman sought diligently, but un- 

 successfully, for their breeding-place in this district. He was led 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 18G1, No. XXVI. 



