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dark-brown blotches.' On the 18th of June the return-journey commenced, and on the 20th Sir 

 Leopold was on the east shore of Prince Patrick's Island. He writes, ' as I was rounding Cape 

 Krabbe, lat. 77° 25' N., long. 116° W., I saw an Ivory Gull seated upon her nest on a bare patch 

 of gravel, near the beach. There was one egg in the nest. The nest was exactly the same as 

 those seen on the Polynia island ; but in addition to the moss, there was a little white down and 

 a few feathers in it. This nest had served for several seasons.' " Referring to the nidification of 

 the Ivory Gull in Spitzbergen, Professor Malmgren writes (I. c.) as follows : — " On the 7th of 

 July 1861 I found, on the north shore of Murchison's Bay, in 80° N. lat., a large number of 

 Ivory Gulls inhabiting a steep, perpendicular limestone cliff, several hundred feet high, in com- 

 pany with Kittiwakes and Glaucous Gulls. These latter had taken possession of the higher 

 portions of the cliff, whereas the Ivory Gulls had taken up their habitation in the clefts and 

 holes about 50 to 150 feet above the sea. I could see clearly that the females were incubating, 

 but could not get at the nests ; and circumstances prevented me from making a trial after the 

 eggs with a long rope and necessary assistance until the 30th July. On this day I succeeded, 

 with the help of three men, in getting at two of the lowest nests, in each of which I found one 

 egg. The nests were simply and carelessly constructed, being a hollow, 8 or 9 inches in diameter, 

 in the loose soil on the limestone, this hollow or depression being lined with dry plants, grass, 

 moss, &c, and an odd feather or two. The eggs were much incubated, and contained down-clad 

 young. Both females were shot at the nests, and are, with the eggs, in the Stockholm Museum. 

 The males were seen when we commenced proceedings, but disappeared when we started to get 

 at the nests." Professor Newton, who did not succeed in finding the eggs of the Ivory Gull in 

 Spitsbergen, writes (Ibis, 1865, p. 508) as follows: — "I am, however, inclined to think that the 

 Ivory Gull breeds sporadically on many other parts of Spitsbergen proper. Several of the 

 examples we shot, both in Ice Sound and Stor Fjord, had their bellies bared of feathers, as 

 usual in sitting birds ; but I could not learn from any of the walrus-hunters we met that they 

 had ever discovered a breeding-place, except that our pilot told me that a ship's boat which, in 

 1859, succeeded in reaching Giles Land, found many Ivory Gulls' nests on its lonely shore. 

 This species, like other Gulls, probably does not always breed in colonies ; and as it is sure to 

 select the most inaccessible place for that purpose, an occasional nest here and there on the 

 mountains or crags might well escape notice. Mr. Wolley, as I remarked before the Zoological 

 Society (P. Z. S. 1861, p. 401), was told of a breeding-place which the Quams in their language 

 called ' Porro Vaara ' (?'. e. Reindeer Hill) ; but I have since ascertained that this name is often 

 applied to a considerable portion of Spitsbergen ; the information therefore is less precise than I 

 formerly thought." 



Holboll tried to establish a second species of Ivory Gull under the name of Larus brachy- 

 tarsus ; but it appears that it cannot stand. It is supposed to differ in having the wing longer, 

 the tarsus shorter, and the bill darker and tipped with bronze ; but these differences seem not to 

 be constant, and I have therefore placed this name under the list of synonyms of the present 

 species, which, I may add, I find, even in the small series I have examined, differs not a little in 

 the measurements of the individual specimens. 



The specimens figured are an adult male in my own collection, and an immature bird in the 

 collection of Mr. Howard Saunders. 



3u 



