30 
BULLETIN 292, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 
NELSON'S GULL,. Larus nelsoni Henshaw. 
A single specimen of Nelson's gull, taken by Nelson at St. Michael, 
Alaska, June 20, 1880, served as the basis for the description of this 
gull. A specimen in the British Museum, taken many years pre- 
viously on the coast of Alaska near Bering Strait by Captain Kellett 
and Lieutenant Wood, also belongs to this species. No more speci- 
mens were obtained for 17 
years, until in 1897 two 
were taken at widely sepa- 
rated localities. One was 
secured at San Geronimo 
Island, Lower California, 
March 18, 1897 (Dwight), 
and one at Point Barrow, 
Septembers, 1897 (Stone). 
No further specimens have 
been recorded in the last 
18 years, though during 
this period active collect- 
ing has taken place at 
many localities along the 
Alaskan coast from north- 
ern British Columbia to 
Point Barrow. 
GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 
Larus marinus Linnjsus. 
Range. — North Atlantic 
from central Greenland 
and northern coast of Eu- 
rope, south to the Great 
Lakes, Delaware Bay, the 
Canaries, and northern 
Egypt. 
Br e eding range . — The 
usual northern limit of 
nesting of the great black- 
backed gull is in central 
fig. i2.-Neison's guii (Lams neisoni). Greenland, about latitude 
70°, Disco (Dawson) , and Godhavn (M'Clintock) , but occasionally a few 
breed north to latitude 73° at Upernivik (Schalow), whence it breeds 
south to the southern end of Greenland on the west side. There 
seems to be no certain record of its breeding on the east coast of 
Greenland or anywhere on the Arctic islands of North America. It 
breeds along the northern coast of Europe east to the Petchora 
Kiver (Saunders), but is rare on the islands off the coast; it also 
