ROSS'S GULL 



covered the birds nesting in colonies of from two or three to ten or fifteen pairs, in 

 company with Terns — apparently the Arctic Tern — on the Kolyma Delta, in North- 

 eastern Siberia, during the summer of 1905. A full and most interesting account 

 of the Gulls and their nests has been given by this explorer in a communication to 

 The Ibis for January 1906, pp. 131- 139, from which I have taken the following 

 extracts and notes : 



"The delta of the Kolyma, which is the easternmost of the great rivers of the 

 North Polar basin, lies, roughly speaking, between 68£° and 69!° N. lat. and from 

 1 59 to 161 \" E. long. 



" This vast area, at least 1 5,000 square kilometres in extent, consists of a liberal 

 admixture of lakes, lagoons, channels, rivulets (' viska'), swamps, moors, and 

 damp ground of every description, with dry places only at intervals. . . . On the 

 morning of May 31st one of my men saw a pair, and during the day I went on the 

 river — where the fathom-thick ice was still quite safe — and came across several 

 dozens. The sun was shining brightly, and in the distance each pair appeared like 

 so many roseate points on the bluish ice of the great stream. I say ' pair,' as from 

 their first arrival the birds were constantly seen in pairs. They had evidently just 

 finished their migration, and were tired after their exertions ; for they sat very 

 quietly on the ice, and though all attempts to stalk them were unavailing, they 

 would not fly far, but only shifted from place to place with a lazy and somewhat 

 uneasy motion of their wings, which made me jot down in my note-book on the 

 spur of the moment that the flight was more Fulmar-like than Gull-like. 



" Several hours later they had evidently recovered from their fatigues, and then 

 I saw that their flight, far from being Fulmar-like, was really much more Tern- 

 like." Mr. Buturlin observed the birds hovering over a shallow lake, and noticed 

 that when resting and in pairs the male could always be distinguished, even at a 

 distance, by his brighter colouring. 



He mentions that the note of this species is peculiar, "being high and more 

 melodious than that of Gulls in general, and very variable." The cries he most 

 often heard "resembled" "a-wo, a-wo, a-wo" and "claw, claw, claw" (or "cliaw, 

 cliaw "), but various other notes were uttered. 



Some nests were placed " on little mossy swamps almost bare of grass," others 

 " on wet grassy spots or bogs much nearer to the water, and these nests rose from 

 four to ten inches — generally from five to eight inches — above the surface." The 

 nest is "composed of dry grass and Carices, sometimes with the addition of a few 

 dry Betula or Salix leaves, while I once saw one made of white reindeer-moss." 

 The two, or more usually three, eggs are "of a beautiful deep rich olive-green, with- 

 out any of the greyish or sandy shade so common in eggs of Sterna and other 



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