LARIDiE — THE GULLS AND TERNS — RISSA. 201 



Mr. Kumlien states that tliis Gull was very common in Kingwah Fiord and its 

 vicinity, just before the closing of the ice, for a few days only ; none were seen in 

 the spring. It is by no means common on the Greenland coast. The stomachs 

 of all the examples which were secured contained small crustaceans ; these Gulls 

 do not, however, restrict themselves to this food, but are very fond of meat, and 

 especially of the flesh of the seal and whale. 



Dr. Walker mentions meeting with this species about Godthaab ; and it is given 

 by Professor Reinhardt as being included among the resident species of Greenland. 

 Mr. Proctor informed Professor Alfred Newton (" Ibis," 18G4) that he had on two 

 occasions received specimens of it from Iceland. It is known to frequent Davis 

 Straits, Baffin's Bay, and various parts of the northern shores of the continent, where 

 it is a constant attendant upon the whale-fishers, and preys upon the blubber. 



Mr. H. W. Feilden (''Ibis," Oct. 1877) speaks of this Gull as being one of the 

 birds most frequently observed in Smith's Sound, but as not met with beyond lati- 

 tude 82° 20'. He found a pair of them nesting in a lofty and inaccessible cliff near 

 Cape Hayes on the 16th of August, 1875. On the 1st of September a single example 

 flew around the " Alert " as she lay moored in the ice in Lincoln Bay, latitude 82° 6'. 

 On the 2d of August, 1876, he observed one near Cape Union ; and on the 12th of 

 August they were common in Discovery Bay, and from there southward to the north 

 water of Baffin's Bay. This species is also enumerated by Dr. Bessels among the 

 birds taken in the Polaris Expedition, under Captain Hall — probably in Polaris Bay. 



The egg of this Gull obtained by Captain McClintock is represented in a colored 

 plate in the " Proceedings of the Royal Society of Dublin." It is 2.45 inches in 

 length and 1.70 in breadth, of an oblong-oval shape, and slightly more obtuse at 

 one end than at the other. It has a ground color of a light yellowish olive, marked 

 over its entire surface with small blotches of a dark brown, intermingled with others 

 of a lighter and more obscure brown, and with larger cloudings of a faint lilac. 



Genus RISSA, Leach. 



Eissa, Leach, Stephen's Gen. Zool. XIIL 1825, 180 (type, Larusrissa, BuvtiJ:;. = L. tridactyliis, 

 Linn.). 



Char. Size medium ; tail even, or very faintly emargiuate ; hind toe rudimentary, or entirely 

 absent, the nail usually obsolete ; tarsus much shorter than the middle toe without its claw, not 

 rough or serrate behind. Above, pearl-blue, beneath, white, the young with a black nuchal patch 

 (and in R. tridactyla a black shoulder-patch). 



Only two species of Rissa are known, both of which belong to the North American fauna. They 

 may readily be distinguished by the following characters : — 



1. R. tridactyla. Legs and feet black ; wing, about 12.25 inches ; culmen, 1.40-1.50 ; depth 



of bill at base, .59 ; tarsus, 1.30 ; middle toe with claw, 1.80. Hab. Northern ])ortion of 

 northern hemisphere. 



2. R. brevirostris. Legs and feet deep coral- or vermilion-red (drying yellowish) ; wing, 



about 13.00 inches ; culmen, 1.20 ; depth of bill through base, .50 ; tarsus, 1.25 ; middle 

 toe with claw, nearly 2.00. Hab. North Pacific, particularly the American side. 



VOL. II. — 26 



