KOBUK 141 



Family LARIDAE: Gulls, Terns 

 Larus hyperboreus Gunnerus 



Glaucous-winged gulls are not known to the Nunamiut and I could 

 not find that they were known to occur at Kobuk. Nelson (1887) 

 found glaucous- winged gulls rare north of Bering Sea and remarked 

 that no specimens had been taken from the interior. Bailey (1948) 

 reported that Grinnell's (1900) Kobuk specimen was not a glaucous- 

 winged gull and that various other arctic coast specimens reported 

 to be glaucous-winged gulls should be otherwise identified. In August 

 1957, while occasionally traveling along the Kobuk between Ambler 

 River and Manneeluk I did not distinguish a glaucous-winged gull 

 among some 200 glaucous gulls which I saw. Adding this evidence 

 together convinces me that Townsend's report of glaucous-winged 

 gulls along the Kobuk River is not characteristic of their distribution 

 and that they have not been identified in the interior arctic forested 

 country. 



Larus argentatus Pontoppidan 



Herring gulls have not been earlier reported at Kobuk, but it was 

 evident that they were well known to Sheldon for their wing pattern 

 and difference from short-billed gulls in size and color of feet and bill. 

 Occasionally a herring gull visits Anaktuvuk, and I collected a speci- 

 men from a family group on the Alatna River in its wooded section 

 about 80 miles east of Kobuk village. They appear to be the common 

 large gull nesting in the northern wooded interior. 



Xema sabini (Sabine) 



Grinnell (1900) saw only one group of six Sabine's gulls near Hunt 

 River. Sheldon recognized the descriptions of them as common gulls 

 on the coast and said that they were occasionally seen at Kobuk. They 

 are also seen in the interior of arctic Alaska as far south as Anaktu- 

 vuk, and the Nunamiut and Kobuk names are similar. There is no 

 indication that the Sabine's gulls seen in the interior are other than 

 temporary visitors. 



Family STRIGIDAE: Typical Owls 



Bubo virginianus lagophonus (Oberholser) 



Early in July 1954 Sheldon and I saw an adult and three young 

 great horned owls just able to fly clumsily in the trees along Kugaluk- 

 tuk Creek, the next large tributary to the Kobuk above the village. 

 I also saw one in August 1957 about 10 miles above Kobuk. They 

 are familiar to the residents of Kobuk and evidently nest in the 

 western arctic forest. 



