391 



breeding in the wooded regions in the neighbourhood of Fort Anderson. All the nests, he 

 says (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. xiv. p. 418), of which thirty were taken with eggs between the 

 10th June and 10th July, were placed either in bushes or on trees at various heights from the 

 ground — none less than four feet, and others from fifteen to twenty feet, and with one exception 

 (which nest was composed of down and velvety leaves held together by some stringy turf) they 

 were made of small sticks and twigs lined with hay &c. He mentions meeting with this Gull 

 in that season much more frequently on his line of travel than on any other occasion, while it 

 was much later than usual in nesting. 



According to Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, " Mr. Kennicott found this Gull nesting in 

 the neighbourhood of Fort Yukon, and describes the nest as being of about the size of that of 

 Zenaidura carolinensis, but the cavity is rather deeper. It was placed on the side branch of a 

 green spruce, several feet from the trunk, and about twenty feet from the ground, near a lake. 

 Mr. Kennicott saw several nests near this one, all alike and in similar positions, except that some 

 were not over ten feet from the ground and were on smaller trees : but all were on spruce trees. 

 One nest which he examined contained three young birds of a dirty yellowish color, thickly 

 spotted with dark brown. He saw between twenty-five and fifty Gulls about that breeding- 

 place, but he found only a few of their nests. These birds were said by the Indians always to 

 breed in similar situations. 



" In regard to twenty-two other nests described by Mr. MacFarlane, we gather that the usual 

 maximum number of eggs in a nest is three — very rarely four ; that all are placed in elevated 

 situations, on high stumps, or bushes, or trees ; that the nests are made of sticks, and lined with 

 hay and other soft substances ; and that the parents are fearless when they have young, flying 

 about in close proximity and screaming vehemently. The nests were found with eggs from 

 June 10 to the 10th of July ; and in some cases mosses and lichens from the pines and spruces 

 had been largely used in their construction. They were usually placed flat on horizontal 

 branches at some distance from the trunk. The eggs procured by Mr. MacFarlane vary in 

 leno-th from 1-90 to 2-05 inches, and in breadth from 1-35 to 1 45. Their ground-color is a 

 greyish olive, passing into a greenish tint, while the markings consist of small spots of clove- 

 brown, and are chiefly gathered around the larger end of the egg." 



The egg of this Gull was first described and figured by Professor Newton in 1871 (P. Z. S. 

 1871, p. 57, pi. iv. fig. 6) from a specimen obtained by Mr. MacFarlane at Anderson-River Fort. 



I am indebted to the late Professor Spencer F. Baird for two eggs of this Gull, taken by 

 MacFarlane ou the Anderson River, Arctic America, which are pale olivaceous green, one with 

 the ground-colour olivaceous brown, end are marked and spotted with purplish-grey underlying 

 shell-markings and blackish-brown surface-spots ; both are more marked at the larger end, and the 

 paler egg has a wreath-like circle of irregular dashes and blotches round the larger end. In 

 size they measure 1 9G by 1-32 inch and 1-90 by 1-42 respectively. 



The specimens figured and described are in my own collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined, besides the series in the British 

 Museum, the following specimens : — 



3h 



