LIFE HISTOEIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 189 



resembled "a- wo, a-wo, a-wo" and "claw, claw, claw" (or " cliaw, cllaw"). 

 When disturbed the birds have a short cry of " via, via, via," and if much dis- 

 appointed a longer " kiaw, klaw " or " kiaoo, kiaoo, viaw." When quarreling 

 they utter "miaw, miaw, miaw" and "a-dac, a-dac, a-dac," as already men- 

 tioned. 



The rosy gull can hardly be called a peaceful bird, though the terns, com- 

 paratively weak as they are, generally begin the trouble, for it Is quite pre- 

 pared to fight, if challenged. Usually the tern distances its rival in the air, 

 but I have seen the gull catch it on the wing and give it a good shake. I once 

 saw a female rosy gull pounce ferociously on an innocent Caleariua lapponicus 

 which was passing, but she was in a very nervous state owing to my examina- 

 tion of her nest, which was going on. 



The rosy gull and its eggs are too small to be hunted up by the Lamuts or 

 Chukchas of the delta, and rapacious birds proper are scarce there; but the 

 eggs are often destroyed by the numerous Stercorarii, and I have to-day seen 

 (June 30) two Buffon's skuas trying to catch the bird Itself. 



Fall— When Doctor Buturlin (1906) visited their breeding 

 grounds on July 22 the Ross's gulls " were nowhere to be seen ; only 

 some shells of their pretty eggs and a wing of a young bird were 

 found near the nest of one of those greedy robbers of the tundra, 

 Larus vegae." But he "observed three small gulls flying silently 

 about with uneasy strokes of the wing, in a somewhat owl-like man- 

 ner, and their silence reminded him of Xema sabinii during the 

 spring migration." All of these he shot and they proved to be 

 " young Rhodostethia rosea, easily identified by the form of the tail, 

 and only one was without the remains of down on the head." These 

 were the last rosy gulls that he saw alive; evidently they had de- 

 serted their breeding grounds and started in their fall migration 

 as soon as the young were able to fly. They sometimes move off their 

 breeding grounds even before the young are able to fly; for "on 

 July 7, having disturbed a colony with the young in down, he " no- 

 ticed a few hours later that the colony was deserted, and that, partly 

 swimming, partly on foot, they had gone to the other end of the lake 

 (or rather a chain of swampy lakes), nearly a mile distant." This 

 exceedingly early northward migration in the half -downy stage of 

 plumage explains why both young and old. Rhodostethia rosea have 

 been observed during August, or even seen after the middle of July> 

 far away from their breeding grounds- 

 Nelson (1887) took a specimen of this , rare gull in immature plum- 

 age near St. Michael, Alaska, on October 10, 1879. The Interna- 

 tional Point Barrow Expedition in 1881, 1882, and 1883, under Lieut. 

 P. H. Ray, obtained a fine series of this rare bird, and I quote from 

 Mr. John Murdoch's notes in regard to it, in Ray's (1885) report, 

 as follows : 



In 1881, from September 28 to October 22, there were days when they were 

 exceedingly abundant in small flocks, generally moving toward the northeast, 

 either flying over the sea or making short excursions inshore. Not a single one 



