NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. - 27 



3S, Lohg-Tailed Jaeger. 



ones of S. parasiticus. They range from 1.95 to 2.18 loBg, and from 1.45 to 1.55 broad. 

 Mr. Nelson describes, a nest of this species which was in a cup-shaped depression in 

 a mossy knoll where lay two dark greenish eggs with an abundance of spots. 



39. IVORY GULL. Gavia alba (Gunn.) Geog. Dist— Arctic Seas, south in 

 winter on the Atlantic coast of North America to Labrador and New Foundland, 

 casually to New Brunswick, and on the Pacific side to Bering Sea. . 



A bird that is resident in the Arctic regions of both hemispheres, only occasion- 

 ally visiting the more temperate zones. It is said to breed the farthest north of all 

 the gulls. Specimens of this species were seen on several occasions by the natural- 

 ist of the Jeannette, Mr. R. L. Newcomb, during his long imprisonment in the icy 

 sea to the west of our northern coast. It was noted as a rare visitor-at Point Barrow 

 by Murdoch, and also by various expeditions among the network of channels north 

 of British America. Noted for its ravenous appetite, gorging itself with the flesh of 

 the seal and the blubber of the whale. They have the habit of watching about seal- 

 holes in the ice, waiting for the seal, whose excrement the gull devours. On the 

 islands and along the coasts of Spitzbergen it breeds sparingly; in like places on the 

 coast of Northern. Siberia it is abundant. The bird Is a resident of Greenland, and 

 the breeding season there begins about the middle of June. The nest is built on 

 some inaccessible rock or cliff; it is made of dry grass and lined with rooss and a 

 ' few feathers, forming quite a hollow. An egg is described as oblong-oval in shape, 

 with a ground color of light yellowish-olive with small blotches of dark brown 

 scattered over the surface. These are intermingled with more obscure brown and 

 cloudings of lilac. Size 2.45 long by 1.70 broad. 



40. KITTIWAKE. Rlssa tridactyla (Linn.) Geog. Dist.— Arctic region, south, 

 in Eastern North America in winter to the Great Lakes and Middle States. 



The Kittiwake Gull is a northern species, found in the Atlantic waters of 

 Purope and America. On the Pacific coast it is represented by the next form, 

 poUicaris. It is one of the commonest resident species of Greenland, and according 

 to observers it inhabits nearly all parts of the Arctic regions. Breeds on the islands 

 of the Atlantic coast of North America, from New England northward; an abundant 

 species, nesting not always on the ground like most gulls, but on rocky cliffs over- 

 hanging water. On Gannet Rocks of the St. Lawrence this noisy Gull is especially 

 numerous, where its nests are found on narrow ledges; they are composed of grass 



