NATATORES. 427 



[192. j 12. Larus Rossii. (Richardson.) Cuneate-tailed Gull. 



Genus, Larus, Linn. 



Larus Rossii (Cuneate-tailed Gulf). Richards., App. Parry's Sec. Voy., p. 359, An. 1825. 



Ross, Parry's Third Voy., p. 195, An. 1828. 

 Larus roseus*. Jardine and Set.by, Orn. Illust., p. i. pi. xiv., An. 1828. 

 Larus Rossii. Wilson, Illustr.of Zool., i., pi. viii. 

 Ch. Sp. Larus Rossii, dorso alisque caudam cuneatam superantibus perlaceo-griseis, remige primo extus nigrescenli, 



rostro gracili nigra, tarsis uncialibus pedibusque miniatis. 

 Sp. Ch. Cuneate-tailed gull, with a pearl-grey mantle. Wings longer than the cuneiform tail. The outer 

 web of the first quill feather blackish ; a slender black bill ; tarsi an inch long, and, as well as the feet, ver- 

 milion-red. 



Two specimens of this gull were killed on the coast of Melville Peninsula, on 

 Sir Edward Parry's second voyage, one of which is preserved in the Museum 

 of the University of Edinburgh, and the other was presented to Joseph Sabine, 

 Esq. No other examples are known to exist in collections ; but Commander 

 Ross, in his Zoological Appendix to Sir Edward Parry's narrative of his most 

 adventurous boat voyage towards the Pole, relates that several were seen during 

 the journey over the ice north of Spitzbergen, and that Lieutenant Forster also 

 found the species in Waygate Straits, which is probably one of its breeding-places. 

 It is to Commander Ross, who killed the first specimen which was obtained, 

 that the species is dedicated, as a tribute for his unwearied exertions in the 

 promotion of natural history on the late Arctic voyages, in all of which he bore 

 a part. Of the peculiar habits or winter retreat of the species nothing is known. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a specimen, killed, June 1823, at Alagnak, Melville Peninsula, lat. 69j N. 



Colour. — Scapulars, interscapulars, and both surfaces of the wings clear pearl-grey; 

 outer web of the first quill blackish- brown to its tip, which is grey; tips of the scapulars and 

 lesser quills whitish. Some small feathers near the eye and a collar round the middle of the 



* The multiplication of synonymous names for the objects of natural history has been often deservedly reprobated 

 as creating a barrier to the advancement of the science, and it may be considered as peculiarly unfortunate that a bird 

 of which only two examples have reached Europe, should already have been figured under two distinct appellations. 

 With the view of relieving myself from the charge of having been accessory to this error, and still more from a wish 

 that the species should continue to bear the name of the meritorious officer and naturalist who first discovered it, I 

 have ventured to trouble the reader with the following brief detail. — The specimens of Zoology obtained on Sir Edward 

 Parry's second voyage, being placed by that officer in my hands, I drew up, at his request, a paper on the subject for 

 the Appendix to his Narrative. In that paper, which was read before the Wernerian Society in January 1824, the 

 name of Larus Rossii was given to this gull, the specimen being at the same time exhibited, and afterwards deposited, 

 by the directions of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, in the Edinburgh University Museum. The Appen- 

 dix was published in 1825 during my absence in America. Mr. M'Gillivray, Assistant Keeper of the Museum, in a 

 paper on the genus Larus, read before the Wernerian Society in February 1824, and afterwards published in the 

 Transactions of that body, having occasion to allude to the cuneate form of the tail of this gull, designates it, " pro 

 tempore," by the name of L. roseus. This name of roseus has been adopted in the Ornithological Illustrations of 

 Jardine and Selby, wherein Mr. M'Gillivray is cited as the first describer of the bird ; but his description is not 

 quoted, nor have I been able to learn in what work it appeared. — R. 



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