437 



north coasts of Asia, and has been found tolerably far south. Von Middendorff says that he 

 found it breeding rarely in 74° N. lat. in the tundras on the Taimyr river, and did not observe it 

 before the 15th June (O. S.). Down the river it was commoner, but always seen in pairs, and on 

 the 15th of August in 75° N. lat. they were still seen about the breeding-places. On the 3rd and 

 4th of September most migrated away after a heavy snow-fall, and after ice had formed on the 

 Taimyr lake ; but as late as the 21st September he saw an old and a young bird flying down the 

 river. Dr. Eadde did not meet with it ; but Von Schrenck obtained an adult bird on the 31st 

 July, 1855, in the north bay of Lake Baikal, where the Angara empties itself into the lake, in 55° 

 N. lat., and says that it was exceedingly rare there, and that he only observed it on three 

 occasions. According to Pallas, it inhabits the sea of Ochotsk. According to Mr. Swinhoe 

 (Ibis, 1874, p. 165), an adult female was shot at Hakodadi, in Japan, in March. 



In America the present species is restricted to the northern portion of the continent, 

 inhabiting during the summer season Arctic America, and in winter straggling along the coast 

 to the middle States. Mr. Dall says that it is not rare about St. Michaels, in Alaska, but does 

 not ascend the river. Captain H. W. Feilden, who met with the present species as far north as 

 82° 34' N. lat., when on the last Arctic expedition, sends me the following note, viz. : — " The 

 Glaucous Gull breeds abundantly on the Cary Islands, Baffin's Bay. I found a colony nesting on 

 a cliff near Payer harbour, a little south of Cape Sabine, but did not notice any other nesting- 

 places further to the north. Occasional stragglers of this species were seen in the autumn and 

 summer as far north as the winter quarters of H.M.S. 'Alert,' in lat. 82° 27' N., whilst the most 

 northern individual that we saw was one I noted in lat. 82° 34' N." 



In habits the present species assimilates closely to the Great Black-backed Gull ; and, 

 like that species, it is extremely voracious, and commits great depredations amongst the eggs 

 and young of other sea-birds and water-fowl. It usually breeds where there is a large colony of 

 other "sea-birds, and, to a large extent, it both feeds its young and itself on the eggs and young 

 in down of its weaker neighbours, and renders itself a perfect pest to them. The young of the 

 Eider, and of several others of the sea-ducks, are looked on by it as tender morsels ; and in places 

 in the extreme north where these birds breed in large numbers, the Glaucous Gull is almost sure 

 to be present, and devours large numbers of the young birds, pouncing down on and catching 

 them just as it requires them. It doubtless also catches the smaller species of mammals, and 

 waits to take possession of the remnants left by the seal-hunters when they have cut up a seal ; 

 or where there is a carcass of a whale or a seal cast ashore, these Gulls collect together like 

 Vultures to regale on it. The call-note or cry of this species closely resembles that of Larus 

 marinus, as does also its flight ; but when the two species are found together they keep apart in 

 separate flocks. According to Mr. Gray, however, the flight of the present species is soft, sedate, 

 and Owl-like, and easily distinguished from that of Larus marinus or Larus leucopterus. The 

 birds they saw were chiefly flying along the muddy shores, and not over the water like the 

 Kittiwakes. One which passed him twice stooped in its flight and lifted a dead Kittiwake, which 

 it carried to a considerable distance in the air and then dropped. 



The Glaucous Gull breeds either on ledges of the rocks or on the ground, making a nest, 

 like Larus marinus, of bunches of grass or seaweed, collected carelessly together on the rock ; or 

 else a hole is scraped in the soil and scantily lined with grass &c. ; and three eggs is the number 



