340 



I observed large flocks of these birds in the canal ; and the two specimens obtained were shot 

 by Mr. Pease in the same locality at very nearly the same period. I have never observed the 

 species at any other point near the Redoubt." Sir John Richardson also met with it in Arctic 

 North America, and found it breeding off Cape Dalhousie. He also says (Faun. Bor.-Am. 

 p. 428) that a solitary individual was seen in Prince Regent's Inlet on Sir Edward Parry's first 

 voyage; and many specimens were procured in the course of the second voyage, on Melville 

 Peninsula. Dr. Elliot Coues (Key to N. Am. B. p. 317) gives its range in the Nearctic Region 

 as "Arctic America, both coastwise and in the interior, common, but still rare in collections; in 

 winter, south occasionally to New York {Audubon) and Utah (Allen)." 



Of the habits of the present species but little has been recorded. I give above some details 

 given by the discoverer of this species ; and Middendorff, who found it breeding in Northern 

 Siberia, writes (I. c.) that on the 10th July the eggs were much incubated, and were deposited 

 in depressions in the moss lined with dried grass bents from the previous year, two eggs being in 

 each nest. On the 17th July tolerably large young birds were seen, though most were only 

 just hatched. On the 15th August he saw full-grown, though not full-feathered, young. They 

 dived with ease, whilst the parent bird flew overhead, every now and then darting down, uttering 

 a harsh note somewhat resembling that of Turdus pilaris. He found the crop of the old bird 

 and the stomach of the young bird filled with the larva? of a dipterous insect. Its flight resembles 

 that of a Tern, which group this species very closely approaches. 



Sir John Richardson (Journ. of Boat Voyage, i. p. 262) says that an island off Cape 

 Dalhousie, on which he encamped, is a breeding-place of this Gull, and that its eggs are 

 deposited in hollows of the short and scanty mossy turf which clothes the ground. I have 

 two eggs sent to me by Professor Spencer F. Baird, of Washington, who informs me that they 

 were obtained by Mr. R. MacFarlane, at Franklin Bay, on the coast of Arctic America, east of 

 Anderson River, in 1865. In colour they are dull brownish-olive, in tinge of colour not unlike 

 a Nightingale's egg, and are here and there marked with an indistinct dull brown blotch, the 

 larger end being more marked than any other portion of the egg. In size they measure 



Ifo by IJo i ncn - 



The specimens described and figured are an adult bird in breeding-plumage in my own 

 collection, and a very young bird in the collection of Mr. Howard Saunders. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser, 

 a, b, ad. Arctic coast, east of Fort Anderson, U. S., summer of 1865 (R. R. MacFarlane). 



E Mus. Howard Saunders. 



a,juv. Barking Creek, Essex, September 8th, 1862 (Thos. Sorrell), specimen referred to in Harting's B. of 

 Middlesex. b, ? ad. Labrador (Moschler). c, d, ad. Jacobshavn, N. Greenland, summer of 1872 

 (E. Whymper). e,juv. Disco Bay, Greenland, July 1867 (E. Whymper). 



