LARIDA. 659 
THE WEDGE-TAILED GULL. 
RHODOSTETHIA ROSEA, Macgillivray. 
An example of this Gull in winter-plumage passed through the 
hands of Graham, the notorious bird-stuffer of York, and was said to 
have been shot near Tadcaster in December 1846 or February 1847 ; 
it was afterwards purchased by the late Sir Wm. M. E. Milner, and 
is now in the Museum of Leeds. According to several experts, it 
presents the appearance of a specimen which has been mounted 
from a relaxed skin, and not direct from ‘the flesh’; but inasmuch 
as this Arctic species wandered to Heligoland in February 1858, 
and to the Feroes in 1863, there is no inherent improbability of 
its occurrence in Yorkshire, and it has been generally admitted to 
the British list. 
This beautiful rose-breasted bird is often called Ross’s Gull, 
after the late Sir James C. Ross, who discovered it on June 23rd 1823 
on Melville Peninsula, during Parry’s second Expedition, while it 
was subsequently observed at Felix Harbour, Boothia ; and several 
examples were seen on Parry’s boat-voyage to the northward of Spits- 
bergen, as well as in Hinlopen Strait. At long intervals, six speci- 
mens were obtained in Greenland prior to 1885, and two immature 
birds in the Mainz Museum are said to have come from Kamchatka. 
The Austro-Hungarian Expedition procured one on Franz Josef 
Land, and Baron von Nordenskiéld’s party in the ‘ Vega’ shot one 
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