The Wedge-Tailed Gull. 



61 



Skua by its swift flight, sharp wings and pointed tail. When I got my gun there 

 were two of them together, flying round and round the ship. I now got a closer 

 view of them and discovered that they were too light coloured to be Skuas. They 

 were by no means shy, but continued flying about close to the ship. On going 

 after them on the ice I soon shot one of them, and was not a little surprised, on 

 picking it up, to find it was a little bird about the size of a Snipe ; the mottled 

 back, too, reminded me also of that bird. Soon after this I shot the other. Later 

 in the day there came another which was also shot. On picking this up I found 

 it was not quite dead, and it vomited up a couple of large shrimps, which it must 

 have caught in some channel or other. All three were young birds, about twelve 

 inches in length, with dark mottled grey plumage on the back and wings ; the 

 breast and under side white, with a scarcely perceptible tinge of orange-red, and 

 round the neck a dark ring sprinkled with grey. At a somewhat later age this 

 mottled plumage disappears ; they then become blue on the back, with a black 

 ring round the neck, while the breast assumes a delicate pink hue.' ' 



" It is," adds Dr. Nansen, " without comparison, the most beautiful of all the 



animal forms of the frozen regions Although it was too late in the year 



to find its nests, there could be no doubt about its breeding in this region." 



This comparatively insignificant — considering the object of the expedition — 

 and accidental discovery of the nesting place of Ross' Gull, was by no means one 

 of the least interesting and gratifying of the achievements of Dr. Nansen's 

 expedition. This bird was not observed by the explorers — Nansen and Johansen — 

 between this point and the highest latitude reached by them ; and on their return 

 journey only when they approached the corresponding latitude, 82° 84', in the 

 longitude of about 63" E. — near the islands they named Hvitenland — did they 

 again meet with it. The further south, toward Franz-Josef Land, they came, the 

 more abundantly was it seen. It is rather surprising that it has not yet been 

 recorded from Spitzbergen, to the south and west of which it has been often taken. 



The Wedge-tailed Gull — so named from the form of its tail, which is unique 

 among the Larinm — has, when in full plumage, the back, shoulders and wings pale 

 lavender-grey, the latter somewhat darker ; external web of the outer primary 

 black, almost to the tip ; the inner primaries and the secondaries have white 

 terminations, which form an alar bar when the wing is closed ; a black ring 

 encircles the neck, narrower in front than behind ; the rest of the plumage white, 

 suffused, during life, on the under surface with a rich warm flush of rose-red ; 

 the wedge-shaped tail, rump and upper tail-coverts white, flushed with rose in life ; 

 the bill dark corneous, and feathered to the nostrils; the legs and feet bright 

 scarlet. Length i2 - 5 inches; wing iol; tail 5; tarsus it. 



