64 BULLETIN 292, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



(Nordenskiold) ; just north of Bennett Island, in July, 1881 (De 

 Long); in the delta of the Lena River, July 8, 1883 (Bunge) — the 

 conditions here are so similar to those of the nesting site that it 

 would not be surprising if eventually the bird should be found breed- 

 ing in the Lena Valley; Hvidtenland, just east of Franz Josef Land, 

 earliest July 14, 1895, common the next day (Nansen); Disco, Green- 

 land, June 15, 1885 (Seebohm); and Point Barrow, Alaska, June 9, 

 1898 (Stone). The last two records are probably of stragglers, but 

 the others would indicate a summer nonbreeding range on the Arctic 

 coast and islands from longitude 173° W. to longitude 63° E., nearly 

 2,000 miles in this latitude. 



The most extensive migrations occur in September and the most 

 notable of these so far recorded are those witnessed by Murdoch at 

 Point Barrow. Here the first birds were seen September 28, 1881, and 

 the species was common for a month, literally thousands passing, all 

 going toward the northeast. A similar flight was witnessed the next 

 year, when the species was abundant from September 10 to October 9. 

 When the same place was visited in the fall of 1897, only two indi- 

 viduals were seen, one on September 9 and the other September 23 

 (Stone). Similar flights of large flocks of the birds were seen by 

 Birulia, near the New Siberian Islands, in 1901 and 1902. Young 

 birds of the year were abundant September 11, 1901, near Bennett 

 Island, and the next year flocks of young appeared at New Siberia 

 August 16, followed by flocks of old birds September 5. After 

 this both were abundant September 11-15, and disappeared Sep- 

 tember 20. 



Northeast of the New Siberian Islands, in about latitude 81° N., 

 Nansen saw 8 birds in early August, 1894, during the drift of the 

 Fram. The naturalists of the Jeannette saw them in October, 

 1879, near Wrangell Island, and on October 10, 1879, a lone indi- 

 vidual appeared at St. Michael, Alaska (Nelson). 



The winter home of Ross's gull is entirely unknown. Stragglers 

 have been taken at this season on Bering Island, December 10, 1895 

 (Stejneger); two at Cagliari Bay, in the Sardinian Sea, in early 

 January, 1906 (Martorelli) ; one at Pointc de la Roche, on the coast 

 of Vendee, France, December 22, 1913 (Sequin); one on Sudcroe 

 Island of the Faroe group, February 1, 1863 (Mueller) ; and one 

 on Helgoland, February 5, 1858 (Gatko). Even stragglers have 

 not been noted anywhere during March and April or before late May, 

 when the birds arrived at their breeding grounds in the delta of the 

 Kolyma River, and were also noted in migration at Vcrkhojansk, on 

 the Java River, 250 miles from the coast and about the same distance 

 west of the most western known breeding colony. Inhabitants of 

 this latter place reported that visits of this gull were unusual and 

 that it did not breed in that district. Another spring bird, but 



