IVORY GULL. 
245 
American continent. It seldom migrates far from its natal 
regions, is a pretty constant attendant on the whale-fishers, 
and preys on blubber, dead whales, and other carrion. Dr. 
Richardson observed it breeding in great numbers on the high 
broken cliffs which form the extremity of Cape Parry, m lati- 
tude 70°. It is also found on the Pacific coast as far as 
Nootka Sound, and commonly wanders far out to sea, seldom 
approaching the land but during the period of incubation. Its 
only note consists of a loud and disagreeable scream. 
This Gull has been seen but seldom on the American shore o£ 
the Atlantic south of Greenland, and Mr. Hagerup considers it a 
rare bird in the southern portion of that country. Mr. Boardman 
reports that two examples have been sent to him from Grand 
Menan, and in the winter of 1880 I examined a freshly killed Gull 
that a “ boatman ” told me he had shot the day before off the 
harbor of St. John. The .skin was identified at the Smithsonian 
Institution as an immature Ivory Gull. On the English coast this 
species is more frequently seen, and examples have been taken in 
France and Switzerland; but it is only a straggler outside the 
Arctic Circle. The species is circumpolar in its range, but breeds 
in greatest abundance on the islands which lie to the northward of 
Europe. 
The Ivory Gulls appear to spend most of the time amid the pack- 
ice, often at a long distance from the land. They are ravenous 
feeders, and omnivorous in their diet, refusing nothing. Small 
rodents and shell-fish are alike fair game to these gluttons, and 
they feast with apparent relish on putrid blubber, or even seals’ 
excrement. The cry is said to be a loud and disagreeable 
scream. 
