IVORY GULL. 245 



American continent. It seldom migrates far from its natal 

 regions, is a pretty constant attendant on the whale-fishers, 

 and preys on blubber, dead whales, and other carrion. Dr. 

 Richardson observed it breeding in great numbers on the high 

 broken cliffs which form the extremity of Cape Parry, in lati- 

 tude 70°. It is also found on the Pacific coast as far as 

 Nootka Sound, and commonly wanders far out to sea, seldom 

 approaching the land but during the period of incubation. Its 

 only note consists of a loud and disagreeable scream. 



This Gull has been seen but seldom on the American shore of 

 the Atlantic south of Greenland, and Mr. Hagerup considers it a 

 rare bird in the southern portion of that country, though it is said 

 to occur regularly at Labrador and Newfoundland. Mr. Boardman 

 reports that two examples have been sent to him from Grand 

 Menan, and in the winter of 1880 I examined a freshly killed Gull 

 that a " boatman " told me he had shot the day before off the 

 harbor of St. John. The skin was identified at the Smithsonian 

 Institution as an immature Ivory Gull. On the English coast this 

 species is more frequently seen, and examples have been taken in 

 France and Switzerland; but it is only a straggler outside the 

 Arctic Circle. The species is circurapolar in its range, but breeds 

 in greatest abundance on the islands which lie to the northward of 

 Europe. 



The Ivory Gulls appear to spend most of the time amid the pack- 

 ice, often at a long distance from the land. They are ravenous 

 feeders, and omnivorous in their diet, refusing nothing. Small 

 rodents and shell-fish are alike fair game to these gluttons, and 

 they feast with apparent relish on putrid blubber, or even seals' 

 excrement. The cry is said to be a loud and disagreeable 

 scream. 



