30 



BULLETIN 292, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



NELSON'S GULL. Larus nelsoni Henshaw. 



A single specimen of Nelson's gull, taken by Nelson at St. Michael, 

 Alaska, June 20, 1880, served as the basis for the description of this 

 gull. A specimen in the British Museum, taken many years pre- 

 viously on the coast of Alaska near Bering Strait by Captain Kellett 

 and Lieutenant Wood, also belongs to this species. No more speci- 

 mens were obtained for 17 

 years, until in 1897 two 

 were taken at widely sepa- 

 rated localities. One was 

 secured at San Geronimo 

 Island, Lower California, 

 March 18, 1897 (Dwight), 

 and one at Point Barrow, 

 September5, 1897 (Stone). 

 No further specimens have 

 been recorded in the last 

 18 years, though during 

 this period active collect- 

 ing has taken place at 

 many localities along the 

 Alaskan coast from north- 

 ern British Columbia to 

 Point Barrow. 



GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



Larus marinus Ldtn.£tts. 



Range. — North Atlantic 

 from central Greenland 

 and northern coast of Eu- 

 rope, south to the Great 

 Lakes, Delaware Bay, the 

 Canaries, and northern 

 Egypt. 



Breeding range . — The 

 usual northern limit of 

 nesting of the great black- 

 backed gull is in central 

 fig. i2.-Neison's guii {Lams ncisoni). Greenland, about latitude 



70°, Disco (Dawson) , and Godhavn (M'Clintock) , but occasionally a few 

 breed north to latitude 73° at Upernivik (Schalow), whence it breeds 

 south to the southern end of Greenland on the west side. There 

 seems to be no certain record of its breeding on the east coast of 

 Greenland or anywhere on the Arctic islands of North America. It 

 breeds along the northern coast of Europe east to the Petchora 

 River (Saunders), but is rare on the islands off the coast; it also 



