KTJNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 40. NIO 5. 63 



The latter author found the nests »in the seaweeds just above the highwater 

 mark with one exception which lay in the grass. » Usually he found the nests » pla- 

 ced upon flat rocks sheltered partly by others.» Von den Steinen (12) found also 

 the nests in the tidal zone on grass-covered rocks on which the eggs lay »in einer 

 einfachen, flach eingedriickten Halmstreu». K. A. Andersson (8) found the nests 

 of this species on Graham land situated on the low land and built of möss on 

 the snow. 



The downy youngs have the same dotted appearance as those of related euro- 

 pean gulls. 



Hall (13) has expressed as his opinion »that the young assume the plumage 

 of the adult in one season.» With our knowledge about the closely related species 

 L. marinus, fuscus etc. this does not seem probable. My material speaks also to 

 the contrary. Two young birds, one shot by Sörling on South Georgia in the middle 

 of March, and the other collected by the »Antarctic» -Expedition (9) on the Falklands 

 in the låter part of July, have rather similar plumage, while a third young bird, 

 shot by Sörling on South Georgia at the end of August, has quite another appear- 

 ance. The young specimen from the Falklands is streaked and mottled all över, 

 there are no white tips to the blackish quills, the outer half of the tail-feathers are 

 blackish, the inner half with narrow irregular bars, bill blackish. Sörling's young 

 gull from March is darker more evenly dusky on the neck, and makes the impression 

 of being an older bird than the former. The third specimen is quite different. The 

 mantle is unspotted, slaty black, the feathers of the neck are white with dusky spöts 

 or shaft-streaks at the ends which produce a streaky appearance, breast and belly 

 with white feathers which only are a little dusky externally thus producing an ap- 

 pearance as if the bird was soiled. Quills black, some of inner primaries with small 

 white tips and all secondaries with broad white tips. The tail-feathers almost pure 

 white with a few cloudy black spöts, and the tail-coverts pure white. The bill is yellow 

 although not so bright as in the old bird but even the red mark on the lower jaw 

 is present. It is evident that this bird is not in its first plumage. I ara inclined 

 to think that it is a bird in its third year, and that the two other young birds 

 described above represent resp. the first and second plumage. At least two different 

 kinds of plumage in full grown birds were observed by Sörling so that it is quite 

 certain that the young birds are different from the adult at least during two years. 



Larus dominicanus is rather numerous in the fjords of South Georgia but Sör- 

 ling never saw any bird of this kind far out on the open sea. Similar observations 

 have also been made by others (K. A. Andersson (8)). Hall (13) says: »I think they 

 fear to venture far out in the open, for they are not very strong on the wing, and 

 when a storm arises they invariably float on the water, keeping within the kelp, 

 which grows a mile out from the beaches. In this way hundreds may be seen, rid- 

 ing out a gale. For variety of position the bird will stånd for some time upon the 

 kelp, and to do this it does not fold its wings for a while, but, like a boat under 

 sail, it will incline forward, until a sure footing on the weed is obtained.» 



