FROM THE LIBRARY OF FRANK S. WRIGHT AUBURN, NEW YORK Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924022523868 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY LABORATORY OF ORNITHOLOGY LIBRARY U. S. NATIONAL, MUSEUM BULLETIN I13 PL. J H. K, Job. LAUGHING GULL. Battledore Island, Louisiana. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM Bulletin 113 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS ORDER LONGIPENNES BY ARTHUR CLEVELAND BENT Of Taunton, Massachusetts aeeeSnees, WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1921 ADVERTISEMENT, The scientific publications of the United States National Museum consist of two series, the Proceedings and the Bulletins. The Proceedings, the first volume of which was issued in 1878, are intended primarily as a medium for the publication of original, and usually brief, papers based on the collections of the National Museum, presenting newly-acquired facts in zoology, geology, and anthro- pology, including descriptions of new forms of animals, and revisions of limited groups. One or two volumes are issued annually and dis- tributed to libraries and scientific organizations. A limited number of copies of each paper, in pamphlet form, is distributed to specialists and others interested in the different subjects as soon as printed. The date of publication is recorded in the tables of contents of the volumes. The Bulletins, the first of which was issued in 1875, consist of a series of separate publications comprising chiefly monographs of large zoological groups and other general systematic treatises (oc- casionally in several volumes), faunal works, reports of expeditions, and catalogues of type-specimens, special collections, etc. The ma- jority of the volumes are octavos, but a quarto size has been adopted in a few instances in which large plates were regarded as indis- pensable. Since 1902 a series of octavo volumes containing papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum, and known as the Contribu- tions from the National Herbarium, has been published as bulletins. The present work forms No. 113 of the Bulletin series. Wiriam veC. Ravenen, Administrative Assistant to the Secretary, In charge of the United States National Museum. Wasuineoron, D. C. my INTRODUCTION. This Bulletin contains a continuation of the work on the life his- tories of North American birds, begun in Bulletin 107. The same general plan has been followed and the same sources of information have been utilized. Nearly all of those who contributed material for, or helped in preparing, the former volume have rendered similar service in this case. In addition to those whose contributions have been previously acknowledged, my thanks are due to the following contributors : Photographs have been contributed, or their use authorized, by D. Appleton & Co., 8. C. Arthur, A. M. Bailey, R. H. Beck, B. S. Bowdish, L. W. Brownell, G. G. Cantwell, F. M. Chapman, H. H. Cleaves, Colorado Museum of Natural History, E. H. Forbush, A. O. Gross, O. J. Heinemann, A. L. V. Manniche, W. M. Pierce, M. S. Ray, J. Richardson, R. B. Rockwell, R. W. Shufeldt, J. F. Street, University of Minnesota, C. H. Wells, J. Wilkinson, and F. M. Wood- ruff. Notes and data have been contributed by S. C. Arthur, R. H. Beck, F. H. Carpenter, H. H. Cleaves, E. H. Forbush, F. C. Hennessey, R. Hoffmann, F. C. Lincoln, H. Massey, O. J. Murie, C. J. Pennock, J. H. Rice, Katie M. Roads, and G. H. Stuart. With the consent of Dr. L. C. Sanford and R. H. Beck, the American Museum of Natural History has placed at the author’s disposal Mr. Beck’s extensive notes made on the Brewster and Sanford expedition to South America. The distributional part of this Bulletin has been done mainly by the author, with considerable volunteer help from Mr. F. Seymour Hersey, whose time is now otherwise occupied. Dr. Louis B. Bishop has devoted much time to revising the paragraphs on distribution and on plumages. Our attention has been called to an error in Bulletin 107. On page 32 a quotation from Dr. T. S. Roberts was inserted as referring to the food of the eared grebe; this really refers to the food of Franklin’s gull and not to that of the grebe. Readers of Bulletin 107 have suggested some changes. Conse- quently, in this and subsequent Bulletins in this series, the exact details will be given, when available, in such casual records as are given; but it must be remembered that no attempt will be made to v vi BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. mention all casual records; only a few can be given, to suggest the limits of the wanderings of the species. Another addition of value, suggested and furnished by Dr. T. 8. Palmer, is information regard- ing reservations and the species which are protected in them. As * some readers have questioned the scale on which the eggs are illus- ; trated, it seems desirable to say that in Bulletin 107, in this one, and 4 in subsequent Bulletins, all eggs are, and will be, shown exactly life- : size, the plates being produced by an exact photographic process. Tue AUTHOR. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. Family Stercoraridae Catharacta skua Skua Habits. — Distribution Catharacta chilensis. Chilean Skua - Habits___ Distribution Stercorarius pomarinus. = Pomarine jaeger =e = Habits Distribution _ Stercorarius parasiticus Parasitic jaeger = at = is ae Be ee SRR RONAN ANNAN ORE Habits Distributions 2222-22 ss a es Stereorarius longicaudus. 21 Long-tailed jaeger 21 HAD Shi cwbshs oreo ee ee ot ee ee eee ee sees 21 Distribution 2255 28 Family Laridae. , 29 Pagophila alba 29 Ivory gull 29 Habits eee 29 Distribution see eee se et pet te ee 35 Rissa tridactyla tridactyla se 36 Kittiwake 2 oe 36 Habits Sate eto aCe es 36 Distribution Plus see esse 43 Rissa tridactyla pollicaris.._._____._._._--__-_______ ee 44 Pacific kittiwake. = 44 Habits____ S ee se eee ees 44 Distributions: 2. eee eee eee 48 Rissa brevirostris Boses = peasy 49 Red-legged kittiwake___.-___.__-_____-__--2 49 Habits ass oe rs Se rk ee i 49 IDISETIDUION 5 sess os op ee 51 Larus hyperboreus. per hs 52 Glaucous gull as Bs Beis eS See 52 EVD GS es eta eg ILA Sm DIE ele oe nh Ae ye 52 Distributionss2s2- 2232 3h eee oe ee eee ce 60 Larus leucopterus::—.-------.----. sae en ne eee ces 62 Teeland “gull, 2322.2 40022-2068 sees ee cee, 62 Habits seen ee ee a tee eS 62 IDIStPIDUHON 2 cc so oc oe 64 VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS. Family Laridae—Continued. ae Larus glaucescens_.....__....___ eee 65 Glaucous-winged gull_____._________._______-____-_-__------------—" 65 Habits. : yo ee eee eee ese 65 Distribution ee 3 Larus kumlieni..........-. =e ----------- B Kumilién’s! ‘Gull 2 oo ee See eee eee eae eS 73 Habits. = severe soeaseeteesn Fee 7B Distribution Eretae) sect Boceeeee 15 Larus nelsoni seebscsseesenteb ss scesteumeascocs 16 Nelson’s Gull_.._----.-~--.-==s--+--=-+.-++-+------+5--4s5-"4075° 76 Habits_... a at ia wa a See se Noe a ns es 76 Distribution_---------.----_--------------------------------- 76 Larus marinus : = wird Great black-backed gull 7 Habits 2ee. i ee ee eS G7 Distribution: 222-22. 20:2 an sete eee sasoeescssaae 85 Larus schistisagus -. = 86 Slaty-backed. gull 2... eo ses ee eee ecesece 86 Habits oe eae 86 Distribution bee ee ise Seen ee ae 89 Larus occidentalis Pe Se ees 89 Wester. fll ote ete a se as ah al os he hn Bh 89 Habits Be foots Ne Oe Se oe ee eh BA 89 Distribution «2... se. seen ete ee ese l ee 98 Larus fuscus affinis : eRe SS ee ae 2 eh ee ea ae eed 99 British lesser black-backed gull________-___-___--------------_--- 99 Habits 22.0 a i ee oe ee 99 Distribution a eee ee EIN 101 Larus argentatusice 222) ee ee a eee 102 Herring gull : ie waite 102 Habits Sea Des Ala alas ase a as re 102 Distribution Be Sethe hoes eon ees pa 119 Mg fus thayerl 2-o252 2256s es Bee a pe 120 TPH AYES, UN oo Be ie Sen et ee ee ee 120 Habits ne —— 120 Distribution ihn whee Ve as ee 122 4, UBrUs Vega@ss 26 oo ve os Se eos eee oe oe eee, 122 Vega gull___. ee Se a tha Big gs 122 Habits Joss 2S 25522 so oS Sone eee os See eae 122 VES UENO UO De wah SN Se eG et oD ahaa wt Se te he tart 124 Darus cCalromicus 2.2. sens eee ete wee ee 124 Galiformid, 20) oss 22 seri ee eet I es oe 124 WODIS oa ee soe d Sh eda et a 124 Distribution_______________ ie ce Se a ee 181 Darus delawarensis....---. 2.2.2 ee 182 Ring-billed: Gulls. 2 os cee eee ee 132 Habits. Sagseie tee ee ee 132 Distribution —--—- ~~~. 2-22 2s se 139 Larus brachyrhynchus ---------~---_--------------eee ee 140 Short-billed gull mtn n nnn nnn cnn nnn nnn nnn 140 Habits. las aarti eee 140 Distribution_.------------~----------~------ ee 145 Larus canus mame m eee nnn 146 TABLE OF CONTENTS. Family Laridae—Continued. .. Mew gull foes Habits. Distribution . Larus heermanni Heermann’s gull Hahits- oe Distribution :~ Larus artricilla__ '. Laughing gull . Habits Distribution_______-___ - Larus franklini-________-___ Franklin’s gull _-.-------- Habit§22 325 kn Distribution_ ‘< Larus philadelphia__--__-__ _Bonaparte’s gull Habits Distribution ~~ Larus minutus. Little gull Habits Distribution _ Rhodostethia rosea . Ross’s gull Habits Distribution Xema. sabini ‘. Sabine’s gull Habits Distribution Gelochelidon nilotica _ Gull-billed tern 3 Habits ; Distribution _.. Sterna caspia Caspian tern___- Habits __. Distribution Sterna maxina ss Royal tern we Habits Distribution - Sterna elegans. - Hlegant tern Ae Habits Distribution Sterns sandvicensis acuflavida Cabot’s tern Habits Distribution Sterna trudeaui — x TABLE OF CONTENTS. Family Laridae—Continued. Trudeau’s tern Habits Distribution Sterna forsteri Forster’s tern Habits Distribution Sterna hirundo Common tern Habits Distribution Sterna paradisaea Arctic tern Habits Distribution Sterna dougalli Roseate tern Habits Distribution Sterna aleutica Aleutian tern Habits Distribution Sterna antillarum —_ Least tern Habits. Distribution Sterna fuscata Sooty tern Habits. Distribution Sterna anaetheta Bridled tern Habits Distribution Chlidonias nigra surinamensis. Black tern Habits Distribution Chlidonias leucoptera White-winged black tern Habits. 2 Distribution Anous stolidus Noddy Habits. Distribution Family Rynchopidae Rynchops nigra Black skimmer Habits. Distribution References to bibliography. Explanation of plates_.._.___--------_---------- eee Index. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS, ORDER LONGIPENNES. By Arraur Cievetanp Bent, of Taunton, Massachusetts. Family STERCORARIDAE, Skuas and Jaegers. CATHARACTA SKUA Briinnich . SEUA. HABITS. The following quotation from the graphic pen of Mr. F. St. Mars (1912) gives a better introduction to this bold and daring species than anything I could write, and his article, The Eagle Guard, from which I shall quote again, is well worth reading as a striking char- acter study: Then the scimitar wings shut with a crisp swish, and he became a statue in dull, unpolished bronze, impassively regarding the polecat, who lay with her back broken, feebly struggling to drag into cover. It is a shock to the human nerves to see the life blasted out of a beast almost ’twixt breath and breath; what one moment is a gliding, muscular form, instinct with life and energy, confident in power, and the next moment a crumpled heap of fur, twitching spasmodically. But it was a searchlight on the reputation of the eagle guard and the stories one had heard anent the superstitions of the natives. The polecat, being hungry with the gnawing hunger of a mother and pre- suming on a swirl of mist, had tried to steal up the knoll to the two great eggs that lay in the hollow atop all unguarded. Had come then a thin, high, whirring shriek, exactly like the noise made by a sword cutting through the air, and a single thud that might have been the thud of a rifle bullet striking an animal. Then—well, then the scene described above. : ‘Big, powerfully built, brown with the black brown of his own native peat bogs, armed to the teeth, long and slash-winged, whose flight feathers were like the cutting edge of a sword, insolent with the fine, swelling insolence of power, and greatly daring, no wonder men had chosen him ag the eagle guard, this mighty bird, this great skua of the naturalists, this Bonxie, mascot, and super- stitious godling of the fishermen. Wah! he was a bird, We know so little about the skua, as an American bird, that I shall have to draw largely from European writers for its life history. It is rare on the American side of the Atlantic Ocean, and is not known to breed here regularly, although it probably does so occasion- ally or sparingly in Greenland or on the Arctic Islands. 1 2 BULLETIN 118, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. Nesting.—Yarrell (1871) says: The great skua arrives in the Shetlands about the end of April, which consists of a neatly rounded cavity in the moss and he highest moorlands, is prepared in the latter half of May. Accor’ Feilden, the birds appear to prepare several nests before they dec: one. There is no difficulty in finding the nests, as the parent birds at once attack any intruder upon their.domain with fierce and repeated swoops. When handling the nestling the editor found their assaults were unremitting; first one bird and then the other wheeling-shert; and coming down at full speed, almost skimming the ground. At about 15 yards’ distance the strong clawed feet are lowered and held stiffly out, producing for the ‘moment a very ungainly appearance, and it seems as if the bird would strike the observer full in the center of the body, but on quickly raising the hand or stick the bird rises also, the whirr and vibration of its pinions being distinctly heard and felt. Its ordinary flight is soaring and stately. On leaving the territory of one pair, the attack is taken up by another, and so on; for the great skuas do not nest in close proximity. wee Morris (1903) writes: The nest of the skua is of large size, as well as somewhat carefully con- structed;.the materials used being grasses, lichens, moss, and heath. ‘The bird places it on the tops of the mountains or cliffs in the neighborhood of the sea, but not on the rocks themselves. ‘They build separately in pairs. Eggs.—The skua lays ordinarily two eggs, rarely three, and some- times only one. These vary in shape from ovate or slightly elongated ovate to short ovate, The shell is smooth, with a dull luster. The ground color is “ Saccardo’s olive,” “Isabella color,” or “ deep olive buff.” The markings are usually not profuse and consist. of spots and -blotches, scattered irregularly over the egg, of “sepia,” “bis- ter,” “snuff brown,” or “ tawny olive.” There are also usually a few faint spots or blotches of pale shades of drab or gray. Rev. F.C. R. Jourdain has collected for me the measurements of 68 eggs, which average 70.58 by 49.43 millimeters; the eggs showing the four ex- tremes measure 76.3 by. 50.4, 71.5 by 53.2, and 62 by 44.5 millimeters. Young—Maggillivray (1852) quotes Captain Vetch as saying: The young bird is a nimble, gallant little animal, and almost as soon as hatched leaves the nest. On the approach of danger he secretes himself in holes or behind stones with great art, and when captured at least makes a show of defense that is quite, amusing. Plumages.—I have never seen the downy young, but Coues (1903) describes it as “buffy-gray, ruddier above than below.” Ridgway (1887) quotes Dresser as calling it “brownish or cinnamon-gray, rather darker in color on the upper parts than on the under surface of the body.” _ : I have not been able to examine enough specimens to come to any definite conclusions as to the sequence of molts and plumages. Coues (1903) gives the following good description of the young of the year: Size much less; bill weaker and slenderer; cere illy developed ; striae not apparent and its ridges and angles all want sharpness of definition. Wings and its nest, ather of the ding to Maj. ide on using PL. 2 113 BULLETIN U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM “qof MH "YaDaVE ANIYVWOd ‘ssB I OIBTYO "6GG BDVd 33S NOlladlyosaa YO4 Se “WOSUIATIM *£ LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 3 short and rounded, the quills having very different proportional length from those of adults; second longest, third but little shorter, first about equal to fourth. The inner or longest secondaries reach, when the wing is folded, to within an inch or so of tip of longest primary. Central rectrices a little shorter than the next. Colors generally as in adult, but duller and more blended, having few or no white spots; reddish spots dull, numerous, and large, espe- cially along edge of forearm and on least and lesser coverts. On underparts the colors lighter, duller, and more blended than above; prevailing tint light dull rufous, most marked on abdomen, but there and elsewhere more or less obscured with ashy or plumbeous. Remiges and rectrices dull brownish-black ; their shafts yellowish-white, darker terminally. At bases of primaries there exists the ordinary large white space, but it ig more restricted than in adults, and so much hidden by the bastard quills that it is hardly apparent on outside of wing, though conspicuous underneath. Young birds may become indistinguishable from adults at the first postnuptial molt, when a little over a year old, but perhaps not for a year or two later. Adults seem to have but one complete molt—the postnuptial—in August. Adults can be distinguished by their larger size and by the elongated feathers of the neck with the whitish central streaks. Food.—Yarrell (1871) writes of the food of the skua: Their food is fish, but they devour also the smaller water birds and their eggs, the flesh of whales, as well as other carrion, and are observed to tear their prey to pieces while holding it under their crooked talons. They rarely take the trouble to fish for themselves, but, watching the smaller gulls and terns while thus employed, they no sooner observe one to have been successful than they immediately give chase, pursuing it with fury; and having obliged it from fright to disgorge the recently. swallowed fish, they descend to catch it, being frequently so rapid and certain in their movements and aim as to seize their prize before it reaches the water. The stomachs of a pair which were shot were full of the flesh of the kittiwake, and the castings consisted of: the bones and feathers of that small gull. Heysham has noticed an adult female on the coast of Cumberland, which allowed herself to be seized while she was in the act of killing a herring gull. It also feeds on fish offal, and the editor found by the side of a nestling some disgorged but otherwise uninjured herrings of large size. Behavior.—In appearance as well as in habits the skua seems to share the attributes of the Raptores and the Laridae; its strong, hooked bill and its sharp, curved claws enable it to stand upon and rend asunder the victims of its rapacious habits. Its flight is also somewhat hawk like. Yet it stands horizontally and runs about nimbly like a gull. Morris (1903) says that it “soars at times at a great height, and flies both strongly and rapidly, in an impetuous, dashing manner.” Mr. Walter H. Rich -has sent me the following notes on the flight of this species: When on the wing, which is.the greater part of the time, the skua shows in the air hawk like, rather than like the gulls, with whom we rather expect 4 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. to find its resemblances. Its appearance in the air is somewhat like buteonine hawks, except that its wing action, in its seemingly restrained ee and forceful stroke, suggests the unhurried flight of a falcon, or, a ein more accurately—since the wings are at all times fully opened, emp oying their full sweep in their action, their primaries slightly separated at the tips and slightly recurved—the majestic flight of an eagle. The wing spread is ample, the wing well balanced in its proportions of length and breadth, well combined to produce both power and speed. The figure is somewhat burly and chunky as compared with the lighter appearance of the gull and the more racy lines of the yager. The impression of muscularity is heightened by the short, square-cut tail, carried somewhat uptilted, giving the tow an appearance unmistakable in the eyes of one having once recognized it. This peculiarity of tail, which to me seemed slightly forked instead of having the central feathers lengthened, as in others of this group, together with the broad white patch across the bases of the primaries, furnishes a good field mark for the identification of the species. “Macgillivray (1852) says: Its voice resembles that of a young gull, being sharp and shrill, and it is from the resemblance of its cry to that of the word skua or skui that it obtains its popular name, Mr. Rich’s notes state: Whatever the case elsewhere, on the fishing grounds this seemed a silent species. The writer heard no sound at all which, he was able with certainty to trace to it during his acquaintance with it. The most interesting phase of the skua’s life history is its behavior toward other species. It is certainly a bold and dashing tyrant, more than a match for anything of its size and a terror to many birds and beasts of larger size. Mr. F. St. Mars (1912) describes its attack on the golden eagle; which dared to venture too near its nest, in the following graphic words: ' Some minutes elapsed, in spite of the warnings, before the human eye could have made out a faint dot growing out of the mist round the tail of an inlet. It enlarged rapidly, however, that dot, and one saw that it was really a real, live eagle, a golden eagle of Scotland. | Mind you, there was none of that sublime soaring in the infinite that the bodks tell of. He éame, as any mere common bird might have come, beating up along the.shore with heavy, flapping flight, which, by the way, looked much slower than it really was, and he said nothing as he came, _ Sale ee ‘ The picture, as it stood, of that somber, bronze-gold winged giant, beating slowly up against the wind in a setting of dim ‘gray sky, jade sea, and dark- velvet land, was very fine. It seemed that nothing could have added to its bold, wild grandeur. Then something seemed to move across the heavens very quickly, and there was a hissing sound as if a mighty sword had cleaved the air. Followed then a second phenomenon just like the first, and almost in the same instant one realized two distinct facts: Firstly, that the two skuas were no longer near their nest; and, secondly, that the eagle had, with five stu- pendous flaps of those vast wings, shot upward into the clouds, LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 5 At the same instant it seemed as though a big -brown projectile hurtled past exactly beneath him, and a fraction of a second later, as though another one had hit him. There was a burst of feathers and a whirl. The eagle appeared suddenly to grow much larger, miraculously to sprout an extra and smaller, thinner pair of wings, and to reel in his flight, recover, reel again, turn half over, as if grappling some invisible foe, drop like a thunderbolt some 200 feet, and then break into two pieces, the larger piece slanting upward on the one hand and the smaller executing the same wonderful aerial evolution on the other. Then were the facts made plain. The smaller portion was the skua. He had darted like lightning upon the eagle’s back and clung there for a second or two— only for a second or two, but it seemed minutes while the two fell—after the king had avoided his mate’s first reckless, headlong, crazy rush. I have no hope to describe to you what followed, because the laboring human eye was far too slow to see and the brain to grasp the electric-quick passage of events. I only know that one was dimly aware that some stupendous battle was going on up there in the dim northern heavens; that bodies, large bodies, bursting with life and a dozen uncurbed wild passions, were sweeping and swerving, and swooping, and swaying, and streaking, and stabbing, and slash- ing, and striving, and screaming in one wild welter of wildering speed. And all the while the land below, save for the huddled sheep, lay as deserted as if a hand had come down and swept it clean of life. Yet one knew that in reality hundreds and hundreds of sharp eyes were watching from cover that battle of the overlords of the air and calculating the chances of life upon its issue. Slowly, second by furious second, inch by hard-fought inch it looked from the earth, but mile by mile it was really, up there in the unbounded airy spaces, the battle receded, receded upward and northward, till the straining eye was at last only conscious of a faraway blur, a dancing of specks, as it were gnats, on the vision, and then, with an almost audible sigh from the hidden specta- tors, of nothing. . Mr. Rich’s impressions of the behavior of the skua are expressed in his notes as follows: This is the overlord of the fishing grounds, fearing no bird here. Whether the skua would successfully contest with the black-backed gull the writer is unable to state, as the two did not come’ together under his observation, but he thinks that the skua need have little uneasiness as to the outcome of bat- tle. The difference in size between the black back and the skua is mostly a matter of measurements, due in part, at least, to the skua’s shortness of rudder. In bulk and weight there is less difference, probably, than is shown by these figures, and in physical powers, judging from appearances, there is little to choose between them. Of the two, the skua’s armament seems the better fitted for damaging an enemy, and he seems to possess greater speed and skill in maneuvering—a flight of greater power and control than has his rival, who, gull-like, is a drifter rather than q flier. Certain it is that the hag, tern, kittiwake, and herring gull move respectfully aside when the “sea hen” comes sailing above them, for all these he harries and robs constantly, performing in the realms of the sea the same robber tactics which the raptorial birds carry on among the feathered people ashore. Are the hags or the gulls squabbling over a bit of waste or striving to tear a “ poke-blown” fish which has drifted away from the steamer’s side; over the struggling mass there comes the shadow of broad wings; a heavy body drops among them regardless of what may be beneath it; the weaker move respectfully aside and leave the 6 BULLETIN. 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. newcomer in undisturbed possession of the spoil. . Over his shoulder the skua gazes at the steamer, making only now and then a tentative pull at the body of his prey, until it has floated to.a safe distance, when he begins to rip and tear it with his: powerful beak. To lose all interest in that particular morsel, hag or gull that comes near the spoil needs to look but once at that lowered head with its bristling crest, and the powerful wing upraised to strike. Winter.—The status of the skua as an American bird is based largely on its occurrence on the fishing banks off the coasts of New- foundland and New England. Probably the birds which occur there in winter. are of this species, but the following notes by Mr. Rich suggest the possibility that the birds seen there in summer may be of one of the Antarctic species: a In the main, the “sea hen” seems to have been considered a winter visitor to our coasts, somewhat unusual during the summer months, yet my records show its presence here from June 19 to November’5, with its period of greatest abundance from August 12 to September 10 (this in the “South part of the channel,” 35. miles east ; south from Sankaty Head, 68° —42’ W.; 41° —20’ N.), with numbers diminishing thereafter until the last appearance therein noted on November 5, 1913. .The writer remained upon the fishing grounds 21 days later, but did not again note its presence there. These facts have suggested to Mr. Norton that the “sea hen” of the sum- mer months may have come from the Antarctic with the shearwaters, returning thither to breed among the penguin rookeries of that little-known continent on the underside of the world; while the skuas of the winter months may come from the northern breeding grounds of ‘the species. : It is regrettable that I was unable to collect any specimens with which to make comparisons and to go deeper into this matter. There would have been very little difficulty in getting material, as the “sea hen,” while more careful than the “ gull-chasers,” was not very shy, and shots at.30 yards or even less would have been frequent. oe oe DISTRIBUTION. Breeding range.—Islands of the North Atlantic Ocean, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe and Shetland Islands. Said by Kumlien to breed at Lady Franklin Island north of Hudson Strait. Winter range.—The North Atlantic Ocean, occasionally reaching land. From the Great Banks, off Newfoundland, and Georges Bank, off Massachusetts, to New York (Long Island). In Europe from the British Isles and Norway south, to Gibraltar. Occasional in the Mediterranean.Sea and on inland waters. “Spring migration.—Migration dates in North America are so few as to appear little more than straggling records. Labrador: Straits of Belle Isle, June 22. | Seek, a Fall. migration.—Birds. reach Georges Bank in J uly. Massachu- setts dates: Ipswich, September 17; Woods Hole, August 30 and Sep- tember 19; Pollock Rip, September 10; and Nantucket Shoals, Octo- ber 17. Recorded from New York ‘(Long Island) as early as August 10. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 7 Casual records.—Accidental inland in New York (Niagara River, spring, 1886). Egg dates-—Iceland: Twenty-four: records May 20 to June 23; twelve records June 8 to 15. Greenland: One record June 21. CATHARACTA CHILENSIS (Bonaparte). CHILEAN SEKUA., HABITS. The preceding species, Catharacta skua, has been reported, as a straggler, on the coasts of California and Washington, where speci- mens have been taken, as recorded below. These records have always seemed open to question as it seemed unlikely that a bird of the Atlantic Ocean would stray so far away from its normal habitat. There are at least two other species of skua, which are fairly com- mon in certain parts of the South Pacific and South Indian Oceans, which would be much more likely to wander to the coast of Cali- fornia. Thinking that these records might refer to Catharacta chilensis or Catharacta lonnbergi, I opened correspondence regard- ing them with Mr. Harry 8. Swarth, which resulted in his sending me one of the birds. After consultation with Mr. Robert Cushman Murphy, who is familiar with these species in life, and after compar- ing it with series of specimens of chzlensis, lonnberg?, and antarctica in various museums in Cambridge, New York, and Washington, I have decided to provisionally refer these birds to the above species, Catharacta chilensis, of which they probably represent an immature plumage or a dark phase.. DISTRIBUTION. - Breeding range.—Unknown. ~ Range.—Most abundant on the coasts of Chile and Peru, but found on both coasts of southern South America, from Rio Janeiro, on the Atlantic side, to Callao, Peru, on the Pacific side. Wanders north- ward, perhaps regularly, in the Pacific Ocean to Japan (Sagami Sea, ‘Anpust 23, 1903), California (Monterey Bay, August 7, 1907, and August 4 and September 21, 1910), Washington (off Gray’s ‘Han. bor, June 28, 1917), and British Columb (off Vancouver Island, June 20, 1917). STERCORARIUS POMARINUS (Temminck). POMARINE JAEGER. HABITS. To most of us this and the other jaegers are known only as sum- mer and fall visitors on our coasts or on the fishing banks, where they are constantly harassing the smaller gulls, the terns, and the shearwaters, from whom they obtain by force a large part of their food supply. The pomarine is the largest. of the three, but by no 174785212 8 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. means the most aggressive. Few of us have ever seen it on its Eas ing grounds, which lie within the Arctic Circle, where it 16 widely scattered over the boundless plains of the marshy tundra. — : Spring—Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) says of its arrival in northern Alaska: The earliest arrival of this bird in spring was May 13 at the Yukon mouth where the writer found it searching for food along the ice-covered river chan- nels. They became more common, until, by the last of the month, from a dozen to 20 might be seen every day, : : Mr. Frank C. Hennessey, who accompanied the A. P. Low expedi- tion to the regions north of Hudson Bay, says, in his notes, that “ the first of this variety was seen to arrive in the spring at Winter Har- bour on May 29th.” Nesting.—Very little has been published on-the nesting habits of the pomarine jaeger. Mr. Hennessey, in the notes referred to above, which he kindly sent me, states that these birds are “ abundant about Winter Harbour, where they breed on the low, flat, marshy land in the neighborhood, choosing the small mounds or slight elevations that abound in these places upon which to rear their brood. The nest is a slight depression in the soil of the elevation and just deep enough ‘to admit the eggs and breast of the bird. No material is used in its construction, but the bottom is covered with much loose soil and rub- bish apparently blown in accidentally.” Mr. C. Boyce Hill (1900) published the following account of the nesting habits of this species in Siberia: On our way down the Yenisei the steamer which was towing us fortunately ran ashore on one of the numerous sand banks which abound in this river. I say fortunately because it enabled us to discover this skua nesting. After having inquired the probable duration of our stoppage, Popan and I agreed to explore the small islands near at hand—a group named the Brekotsky. We took.one each, and on mine, a large, flat marsh, I observed a Pomatorhine skua, which was presently joined by another. The birds did not appear at all demon- strative nor to resent intrusion, like the long-tailed skuas, so I thought they could not be nesting. But after much searching and watching I observed one settle right in the center of the marsh, so at once proceeded to the spot. The bird rose when I was within a few yards of it, and to my delight I saw the nest with two eggs. I waited a few moments for the skua to come within shot and killed it; after pursuing its mate, I captured that also. The nest was a mere depression in the ground, on a spot rather drier than the surrounding marsh, and to reach it I was at times up to my knees in swamp; so that had it not been for a foundation of ice at a depth of from 18 inches to 2 feet from the surface I do not think I should have been able to record this event. I also found nesting on this island some scaup ducks and red-necked phalaropes. Mr. Ludwig Kumlien (1879) found this species breeding on the Greenland coast under very different conditions. He writes: I have, however, nowhere found them so very common as on the southern shores of Disko Island; at Laxbught and Fortuna Bay there must have been LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 9 many hundred pairs nesting. Their breeding place was an inaccessible cliff about half a mile from the seashore. The greater number of the birds nesting here were in the plumage described in Doctor Coues’s monograph of the Laridae as the nearly adult plumage; but there were also a good many birds that were unicolored blackish brown all over, but with the long vertically twisted tail feathers, That these were breeding I think there can be no doubt, as I saw them carrying food up to the ledges on the cliff, for the young I suppose. Eggs—The Pomarine jaeger lays two or three eggs to a set, usually the former. They are said to be scarcely distinguishable from certain eggs of the parasitic jaeger or of the mew gull, but are more pointed. The shape is ovate or pointed ovate. The-shell is smooth and slightly glossy. The ground color varies from “ brown- ish olive” or “ Brussels brown” to “olive lake” or “ dark olive buff.” They are rather sparingly spotted with “bone brown,” “bister,” “chestnut brown;” or “snuff brown,” and occasionally with under- lying spots or blotches of various shades of drab or gray. The meas- urements of 49 eggs, in various collections, average 62 by 44 milli- meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 72.6 by 44.9, 68 by 48, 57.2 by 43.6, and 58.5 by 40 millimeters. Plumages.—The young when first hatched is covered with long soft down, of plain colors and unspotted; the upper parts are “ clove brown” or “olive brown” and the under parts “drab” or “light drab.” The plumage appears first on the scapulars, back, and wings, then on the breast, and the full juvenal plumage, which is not dis- tinctly separated from the first winter, is acquired before the young bird is fully grown. The first winter plumage is the well-known brownish mottled plumage, in which the body feathers and particu- larly the scapulars are heavily barred transversely with dark browns or dusky tints and tipped with rufous or pinkish buff; the central tail feathers are only slightly elongated beyond the other reetrices. This plumage is worn with slight changes all through the first year, or until the first postnuptial molt, which begins in June and lasts until October. The rufous or buff edgings gradually fade out to white during the winter; during the molt into the second-year plumage August birds show old barred feathers with white edgings and new barred feathers with rufous edgings. The second winter plumage is still mottled or barred, but is much lighter colored; the browns are grayer and there is more white, the rufous edgings soon disappearing. There is less barring on the under parts and the belly is often wholly white centrally; the under tail-coverts are heavily barred with white and dusky. There are sometimes signs of the golden collar in this plumage. If there is any molt in the spring, it is only partial, and probably the young bird does not breed in this plumage the second spring. At the second postnuptial molt the following summer, when the bird is about 2 years old, the third-year plumage is assumed. This 10 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. plumage is practically the same as the adult in many individuals; the upper parts are uniformly dark, except that the white and golden collar encircles the neck; the two central tail feathers become much elongated ; the under parts are mainly white, with more Or less dusky mottling on the neck, upper breast, and sides; and the lower abdo- men and under tail-coverts become dusky, but in some individuals these are veiled or mixed, more or less, with white. There is great individual variation in the amount and extent of the dusky mottling in the white. areas, in the amount of white in the dark under tail- coverts, and in the extent of the white and golden collar at this age; but as there is not much further progress to be made toward ma- turity, the third-year birds may be considered practically adult. The fully adult plumage, without much mottling in either the light or the dark areas and with the fully developed golden collar, increases in perfection with subsequent molts; the clear dark crissum and under tail-coverts are assumed when the bird is about 3 years old, though vigorous birds may acquire them before that time. I have never seen a specimen in which the neck, breast, and shoulders were entirely free from dusky mottling. ep, Birds in the dark phase of plumage, apparently, undergo the same sequence of plumages-to maturity, though I have not been able to trace the changes so. satisfactorily.. In the first-year plumage they are much darker than in the light phase, with the white barring much more restricted. During the second year they are almost wholly dark with some whitish and rufous edgings above and below. The third-year and adult plumages are hardly distinguishable, both being uniformly dark, but some specimens show an indication of the golden collar, more or less distinctly, which are probably the older birds. The molt of the contour feathers in both phases occurs in summer, from June to October, and the flight feathers are molted in October, beginning with the inner primaries and the central rectrices.. The prenuptial molts of both young birds and adults are probably in- complete, but specimens of winter and early spring birds are too scarce to demonstrate it. -Food.—The predatory feeding habits of the jaegers are familiar to everyone who has studied the habits of our sea birds during the latter part of summer and fall. They are the notorious pirates and freebooters among sea birds, the highwaymen that persecute their neighbors on the fishing grounds and make them “stand and de- liver.” It is no.uncommon sight on the New England coast to see one or two of these dusky robbers darting through a flock of hover- ing terns or small gulls, or giving chase to the lucky one that has caught a fish, following every twist and turn in its hurrying flight yak LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 11 as it tries to dodge or escape, close at its heels as if attached by an invisible string. At last, in desperation, the harassed tern drops its fish and the relentless pursuer seizes it before it strikes the water. Occasionally the indignant tern voids its excrement instead, which the jaeger immediately seizes, as if it were a dainty morsel. Off Chatham, Massachusetts, we often saw this and the next spe- cies, which are called “jiddie-hawks” by the fishermen, mingling with the shearwaters and browbeating them as they do the gulls and terns. As soon as the shearwaters began to gather about our boat to pick up the pieces of cod liver that we threw overboard, the jaegers would appear and take a hand in the general scramble for food. They. are quick to sense the idea that a gathering flock of sea birds means a feast to be obtained by force. The “ haglets” are greedy feeders, and soon gulp down what pieces of food they can find, but they have learned by many a painful squabble that they are no match for the active, fighting “ jiddie-hawks,” and they are soon forced to disgorge or to surrender the field. Mr. Kumlien (1879). says that on the Greenland coast “ they live to a great extent upon the labors of the kittiwake, though they do not hesitate to attack Larus leucopterus, and even glaucus. They are destructive to young birds and eggs. It is a common sight to see five or six after one gull,.which is soon made to disgorge, and then the jaegers fight among themselves for the morsel, which often gets lost in the mélée.” In addition to the food stolen from other birds, the pomarine jaeger lives on what it can pick up in the way of offal, carrion, and scraps thrown from the galley. It devours young birds and eggs, and even small mammals, such as mice and lemmings. Mr. Albert W. Tuttle (1911) publishes the following account, con- tained in a letter from Mr. Allen Moses, of Grand Manan, New Brunswick: P I saw a pomarine jaeger catch a phalarope. There was a pair of the jaegers, The female started after the phalaropes and chased them a long time. They were too smart for her, and after a long chase she separated out one, and then the male gave chase, and in a few. minutes, with the two chasing the little fel- low, one caught him. within a hundred yards of the vessel ; then they both lighted in the’ water and ate him. Behavior. —Were it not endowed with splendid powers of flight the pomarine jaeger could never perform the feats indicated above. It is not only swift and powerful, but it has wonderful command of its powers on the wing. It can be easily recognized by its superior size and by the peculiar shape of its elongated, central tail feathers, which are broad and blunt and are held with their vanes in a verti- cal. plane, like a rudder. Its ordinary flight is steady and direct, with rather slow, constant, wing beats. Mr. Walter H. Rich haa 12 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM- contributed the following notes on one of its spectacular pie ances: ; Dn’ i % the “gull chaser fee oa ae eros Esch eae piece of food on the water which the sweeping gale had caused it to overrun. Often, too, it thus makes ifs piratical raids upon some luckless hag, which, almost too late, it finds in possession of,a morsel which it deems too dainty to be wasted on a semis squealing shearwater. And so it rises against the breeze, turns itself upside down and, with wings half closed, darts at its victim from above like a lance, But the hag stands to his guns; a squealing, choking remonstrance, a mighty gulp, and if the jaeger has luck he may capture a small fragment of the spoil. Mr. Rich says that the usual “call is a sharp ‘ which-yew,’ also a squeaky whistle, and occasionally a squealing note like the ‘ week- week’ of the herring gull.” Doctor Nelson (1887) says that it “has a low, harsh, chattering cry when feeding with its companions.” Its behavior toward other species, which has been partially shown above, is not above criticism; its motto seems to be that might makes right; it therefore uses some discretion in the choice of victims for persecution. The terns and the kittiwakes are the ones most regu- larly abused, the ring-billed and the herring gulls are less frequently persecuted, and it seldom ventures to attack the glaucous: or the great black-backed gulls. Size and strength do not always bring courage, and the pomarine jaeger seems to be lacking in the latter quality. Doctor Nelson (1887) writes: They are clumsy and cowardly as compared with their smaller relatives. When one of this species chances to cross the path of the smaller species, the latter almost invariably gives chase and beats its clumsy antagonist off the field by repeatedly darting down from above. This attack embarrasses the large bird, so that .it flinches and dives and often alights and watches an opportunity to escape from its nimble assailant. One that was driven to alight in the river thrust its head under water at every swoop of its assailant and exhibited the most ludicrous terror. When on the wing they usually ward off an attack from one side by a half-closed wing, and if above, both wings are raised, forming an arched shield above the back. Fall—tThe fall migration of the jaegers is governed largely by the food supply, which depends on the movements of the fish on which the gulls, terns, and shearwaters feed. On the New England coast we usually look for the jaegers in August, especially where the bluefish or mackerel are running in schools and driving the small fry to the surface. During seasons when these fish are scarce the jaegers and shearwaters are absent, perhaps following other schools of fish far out at sea. And when the bluefish and mackere] move off the coast in the fall the jaegers disappear with them. They are seldom seen on our coasts in winter. We do not know very much about their winter range and habits, but they probably spend thi season roaming at large over the open ocean wherever they can if a chance to ply their trade as pelagic pirates. 2 » tum a complete back LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 13 DISTRIBUTION. Breeding range——Northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. In North America east to central Greenland (latitude 64° to 73° N.). South to Cumberland (Exeter Sound) and Hall Peninsula (Grinnell Bay), Melville Peninsula (Winter Harbor), and the Arctic coast of North America. West to northwestern Alaska (Kotzebue Sound to Point Barrow. North to Melville Island, Banks Island, North Somerset, and probably others. of the Aretic islands. In Europe from Iceland to Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla, perhaps occasionally on the coast,.of northern Norway; also in northeastern Siberia and probably the entire Siberian coast. Siberian birds have been de- scribed as a distinct subspecies, but it is doubtful if on good grounds. Winter range.—Poorly defined. Probably in Southern Hemisphere south to Peru (Callao Bay), northern Australia (Cape York), Burma, and South Africa: (Walfisch Bay); also said to occur on inland waters of Europe south to the Mediterranean, and in small numbers from the coast. of southern California to the Galapagos; occasional in winter in the Orkney Islands, off the south coast of England, and off Japan. It seems probable that these more northern records are not true wintering birds, but late migrants or stragglers. Spring migration.—Northward off both coasis.of. North America. Early dates of arrival: North Carolina, Cape Hatteras, April 18; Massachusetts, May 23; Maine, May 29; New Brunswick, Grand Manan, May 26; Melville Peninsula, Winter Harbor, May 29; Green- land, June 10; California, San Francisco Bay, May 5; Alaska, St. Michael, May 23, and Point Barrow, May 23 to June 6; ‘northeastern Siberia, Liakoff talands June 20, Fall migration—Southward by same routes. Early dates of arrival; Newfoundland, Bonne Bay, August 16; Nova Scotia, Sable Island, September 3; Rhode Island, September 13; New Jersey, October; Alaska, Kodiak Island, August 15; Washington, Puget. Sound, September 7; California, Monterey Bay, August 2; Mexican coast, October 5; Peru, Callao Bay, November 17. Late dates of departure: Ni ortheastern Greenland, latitude 75° 49’ N., August 6; western Greenland, Disco Island, September 6; Nova Scotia, Halifax, October 4; Maine, late October ; Massachusetts, December 9; Rhode Island, October 11; New York Long Island, October 30; New Jersey, December; Alaska, Point Barrow, August 15 to September 20; Wash- ington, Puget Sound, October 22; California, Monterey Bay, Octo- ber 27... om Casual records. Spring records ‘from Nebraska and Michigan and fall records from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri are probably casual stragglers, but they may indicate a. limited migra- tion through the interior from Hudson Bay. 14 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. Egg dates—Point Barrow, Alaska: Twenty-four records June 12 to 27; twelve records June 17 to 20. Iceland: Three records May, 21, June 1 and 28. STERCORARIUS PARASITICUS (Linnaeus). re PARASITIC JAEGER. HABITS. Contributed by. Charles Wendell Townsend, As one watches a flock of terns whirling like driven snow, now here, now there, and ever and anon plunging for fish, one may some-. times see a dark, hawk-like bird suddenly appear on the scene and spread devastation in the ranks: With relentless energy he singles out and pursues some hapless individual until it drops its prey. This is a jaeger, a gull-like bird, with hawk-like characteristics. A more appropriate name for him would be robber rather than jaeger or hunter, for he obtains his food by robbing other birds. He has, however, all the grace and agility of the true hunting birds—the hawks—but his actions rarely end in bloodshed. After all robbery is a less serious crime than murder, but the term robber is oppro- brious, while that of hunter is not, so it is perhaps well that the name remains asitis. °° The parasitic jaeger is circumpolar in its distribution and breeds throughout the barren arctic grounds in North America, Greenland, Eirope, and Asia. In Europe it nests as far south as the Shetlands. It winters from the southern part of its summer range along the coast even as far as Brazil, Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope; but in the interior of the continents it is only of casual occurence. Spring.—In the brief arctic spring, when the ice is breaking up and the snowdrifts are dwindling, the parasitic jaeger arrives on the breeding grounds on the tundra near the shores of the Arctic Ocean, or at a distance from. the sea on the shorés of ponds or lakes. It generally nests apart, not in communities. Of its courtship nothing is known. It is possible that the “ wailing cries” described by Nelson’ and mentioned later may be in the nature of the love song. When surprised near the nest, Nelson (1887) says, “it creeps along the ground with flapping wings to decoy away the intruder.” | Nesting —The nest is a mere depression in the soil. Macfarlane (1908) says it is “scantily lined with a few withered leaves and grasses.” Grinnell (1900) in the region of Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, says “the nest was a slight saucer-shaped depression on a low mossy hummock on the tundra. This depression was scatteringly lined with bits of white lichen, such as grow immediately around the nest.” Thayer and Bangs (1914) report that Koren found it in U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 113 PL. 3 Kolyma Delta ,Siberia. J. Koren. Point Barrow, Alaska. T. L. Richardson, PARASITIC JAEGER. FOR DESCRIPTION SEE PAGE 329. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 15 northern Siberia nesting “in dry spots in swamps.” Russell (1898) at the mouth of, the Mackenzie, says that “the nest was simply a level bit of dry moss on the tundra a few yards from the water’s edge.” £ggs.—Only two eggs are laid and one brood hatched. Nelson (1887) says the eggs are laid in northern Alaska by June 5. The egg is ovate in shape, of a dull olive varying to green, gray or brown ground color; with spots, blotches, and lines of a sepia, drab, dark chocolate, and umber-vinaceous color. These markings are some- times distributed with great uniformity over the whole egg or gath- ered as a wreath about the larger end. The measurements of 50 eggs in various collections average 57 by 41 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 61 by 41, 58 by 43, 51 by 40.5, and 56 by 38 millimeters. Plumages.—[Author’s note: I have never seen a small specimen of the downy young of the parasitic jaeger, but a half-grown young in my collection, which is still more than half downy, has the down of the upper parts uniform “natal brown,” paler on the head and neck, and shading off to “ drab-gray ” on the under parts. There is no indication of any mottling anywhere. The juvenal plumage is well advanced on the wings and scapulars, where it evidently appears first; the feathers are appearing through the down all over the breast and belly and on the upper part of the back ; the tail feathers are bursting their sheaths. The sequence of plumages to maturity is practically the same, in both phases, as in the pomarine jaeger, except that the parasitic jaeger normally acquires its fully adult plumage when a little over 2 years old. The first-year plumage is heavily barred above and below with rufous edgings, which fade and wear away during the fall and winter. The second- -year plumage is less heavily barred, with narrower and whitish edgings above, with much. more white in the underparts, with heavily barred under tail-coverts, with some- what elongated central rectrices and sometimes with a suggestion of the golden color. At the second postnuptial molt, when the bird is from 25 to 27 months old, the fully adult plumage is assumed with no mottling or barring anywhere, with the dusky under tail- coverts and crissum and with the elongated central rectrices. ‘During this molt the upper body plumage is completed first, and the last signs of immaturity to disappear are the barred feathers of the chest and flanks. The postnuptial molt of both adults and young is complete and occurs in August, September, and October, the wings being molted in October. There is probably an incom- plete prenuptial molt also, but material is lacking to show it satis- factorily. Fall adults in fresh plumage have the chin, throat, and 16 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. neck clouded with light drab and the dark crown less pronounced than in spring. This disappears partially by wear, but I have seen one adult, taken in California on April 29, in which this plumage was being replaced by a partial molt. ; Adult parasitic jaegers can be distinguished in life at a long dis- tance by the downward extension of the drab mantle on the sides of the neck which seems to form a partial collar; this is entirely absent in the long-tailed jaeger; the long central tail feathers are more pointed and are held differently in flight from those of the pomarine jaeger, as explained under that species; these feathers are, however, an unsafe guide by which to distinguish the parasitic and long-tailed jaegers, as there is much individual variation and overlapping. These last two species can hardly be distinguished in life in the im- mature plumages. For the best characters by which they can be distinguished in the hand I would refer the reader to Dr. Leonhard Stejneger’s (1885) excellent remarks on the subject. In the dark phase, which may prove to be a distinct species, the sequence of molts and plumages is practically the same as outlined above, though the birds are much darker in all stages. During the first year the brown edgings are conspicuous, but during the second they are replaced by narrower and whiter edgings, the under tail- coverts being heavily barred in both cases. ‘The adult plumage is wholly sooty, with sometimes a trace of the golden collar.] The proportions of the two phases vary considerably. At Ips- wich in the migrations, which extend over most of the summer, the birds in light phase outnumber the dark birds in the proportion of 8 or 10 to 1. Onthe Labrador coast I found those in the dark phase more numerous in proportion than at Ipswich. Richardson (1825) says that on the banks of the Coppermine River in the beginning of July the greater part of them had dark abdomens. Grinnell (1900) in Alaska found a sooty bird mated with a light one and remarks that “one could scarcely believe them to be of the same species.” He says that half of this species in June and July were in the dark plumage. Thayer and Bangs (1914) mention two pairs in northern Siberia, where all four birds were in the light phase, and one pair at Kodiak Island, Alaska, where the birds were in the dark phase. Nelson (1887) mentioned a similar dark couple. The difference be- tween the two phases seems as great as that between the greater and the sooty shearwaters. Food.—The feeding habits of the parasitic jaeger vary consider- ably with the locality. The host on which it preys is in some places, as on the New England coast, the common tern, although the arctic, roseate, and least terns, as well as the Bonaparte’s gull, may in places be added. On the eastern Labrador coast I found the great flocks of LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 17 kittiwakes to be the chief source of its supplies, as also is the case in Baffin’s Land, for Kumlien (1879) says: This species seems to depend on Rissa tridactyla for the greater part of its food. Anderson (1913), under the heading “ Parasitic jaeger,” says: The jaegers are the terror of the smaller birds, spending their time cease- lessly hawking back and forth over the tundra looking for eggs and young birds. Large numbers of eggs of eiders and gulls are destroyed in the rookeries by the jaegers. Whenever the Arctic terns are nesting their neighbors are com- paratively safe, as the belligerent little terns speedily cause any marauding jaeger to beat a hasty retreat. I have also seen ruddy turnstones drive a jaeger away from the nests. I once observed a pair of jaegers chasing a flock of sandpipers. One sandpiper flew out of the flock, the jaegers in pursuit. They seemed to work together, one darting in while the other turned. The sandpiper finally escaped by flying upward until almost out of sight, and the jaegers finally gave up the chase. * * * Some other birds will also attack the jaegers, which are really cowardly birds when heartily opposed. I have on two or three occasions seen a rock ptarmigan fly fiercely at a jaeger which came too near his nesting place and put the jaeger to ignominious flight. Its calling makes it one of the most interesting sea birds to watch. The advent of a jaeger among a flock of terns occasions loud cries of anger among the latter as they scatter to the right and left, while the hunter, singling out one individual, chases it with great energy. No matter how skillfully and rapidly the vic- tim twists and turns, now up, now down, now to one side, now the other, sooner or later, with a few exceptions, it acknowledges de- feat by dropping the fish from its beak or by disgorging the con- tents of its gullet. These, the jaeger, with great skill and agility, catches in mid-air and swallows at once, or on other occasions car- ries hanging from the beak for a short distance before satisfying its appetite. Sometimes it alights on the water, the better to enjoy its meal. Nelson (1887) says: They are very greedy, and frequently swallow so much that they are unable to fly until a portion is disgorged. The victimized tern meanwhile vents its wrath at the robbery in no uncertain language and must again set to work for its living. But the jaegers are not always successful. Thus, on one occasion, I saw a parasitic jaeger pursue a common tern in a straight line for nearly a mile, eventually to give up the chase. Not infrequently two hunters combine on one victim. Thus I have notes of two jaegers at Ipswich, one in the dark, the other in the light phase, that relentlessly followed a common tern. The bird that secured the prize was at once pursued by his companion and accessory in theft. On another occasion two jaegers at Ipswich were chasing a tern that twisted in sharp angles and small circles over the beach 18 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. Finally the tern dropped the fish, which one of the jaeget aie in mid-air. Later the two dashed into a flock of about 4 eee terns and chased them right and left. The terns screamed aD darted around in great confusion; some retaliated by chasing the jaegers. _ ‘A, ih . oe Although this bird well justifies its name parasitic, it occasionally does some foraging for itself; thus King (1836) says that it also “subsists on putrid fish and other animal substances thrown up by the sea.” Turner (1886), at St. Michael, Alaska, says it eats “ fishes that had been cast on the beach, shell fish, and other animal food. They also eat the berries of Empetrum nigrum.” The latter is the crow berry or the curlew berry of the north, the berry on which the curlew. formerly fatted in countless numbers. Turner also relates an instance where a parasitic jaeger picked up a freshly torn-off muskrat skin that was floating on the surface of the water. It seized the skin in its beak and then passed it to its claws, by which it car- ried it off a little distance and began to strip the adhering muscle and fat from it. Nelson (1887) reported that this species eats also shrews, mice, and lemmings. Eifrig (1905) found bones and feathers in the stomachs. Seton (1908) says that in the region of the lakes of the barren grounds “ it lives much like a hawk or a raven, coming when a cari- bou is killed to share in the oflal. Once saw one capture a Lapland longspur on the wing, and have often seen it pursuing ground squir- rels.” Preble (1908) gives the stomach contents of two taken near the Great Slave Lake; the first contained various insects and the bones of a small bird, evidently a young tern, and the other a dragon fly, various beetles, and a small fish. Anthony (1906) says: These deep-sea individuals had their stomachs filled to overflowing with fish spawn about the size of No. 5 shot, evidently of some species spawning on the surface where the bird could pick it up without trouble. I have seen this jaeger in Bering Straits diving for surf smelt, together with Pacific kittiwakes; but, like all of their group, they found it difficult to get below the surface, even with the help of a drop of 6 or 8 feet above the water, and seldom neglected an .op- portunity to rob the Arctic tern or kittiwake. Behavior —The flight, swimming, and diving of this species have all-been mentioned in the feeding habits. While the first is rapid, graceful, and falcon-like, the two last are seldom indulged in, and not very efficient. It is, indeed, a bird of the air and outside of the breeding grounds is rarely seen on shore. On one occasion, however; at Ipswich, I saw a flock of 10 of these birds on 'the smooth, hard beach. , ae In the chase of terns, it is the tern that uses its vocal powers, and the voice of the jaeger is rarely heard. Nelson (1887) says:° ’ LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 19 On cloudy days or in the dusky twilight, these birds have a habit of uttering loud wailing cries, interspersed with harsh shrieks, which are among the most peculiar notes heard in the northern breeding grounds. Mr. W. Elmer Ekblaw says of the habits of this jaeger in Green- land: The jaeger not only steals the food away from the other birds, but also preys upon their eggs and young. In 1914 I found in one day’s tramp two eider nests and one nest of the ring-necked plover that had been despoiled by this ravager. The pierced egg shells were scattered about the nests, as if the jaeger had de- lighted in the destruction he had wrought. The knots and sandpipers of the land birds and the kittiwakes and terns of the sea birds cordially hate the jaeger. In protection of their nests and young these birds often valiantly attack and drive off the greedy jaeger, but usually he pursues them vindictively until they yield to him. He is the particular enemy of the kittiwakes, and whenever he dashes into a flock of them his vicious screams scatter them panic stricken. He then singles out one for his victim and pursues him relentlessly with buteonine tenacity of purpose. Disliked, as parasitic jaegers must be by their victims, they are well able to take care of themselves and have few destructive enemies. Even man, although eagerly taking the eggs for food on the breed- ing grounds, disdains to eat the robber bird. It may, like the strongest of sea birds, at times succumb to the tempest. King (1836) records that one in a storm “sought refuge from the raging elements under the lee of our ‘tent.” Fail.—The fall migration of the young of the year begins in Alaska, according to Nelson (1887), after the 20th of September and the birds keep out to sea on the New England coast. I have seen adults at Ipswich as early as July. - Here they pursue their calling among the terns until these birds leave for the south, whither they follow them by September, and continue the same mathotls of mak- ing a living: ONE the winter. ~ DISTRIBUTION. Breeding range.—Arctic and subarctic regions of both hemispheres. In North America east to Greenland (Disco Bay and Baffins Bay and probably north to Thank God Harbor. South to northern Labrador (Killinek), and northern Hudson Bay (Southampton Island), cen- tral Keewatin (near York Factory), southern Mackenzie (Great Slave Lake), southwestern Alaska (Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island), and the Aleutian Islands. West to Bering Sea coast of Alaska. North to the Arctic coast of Alaska and Mackenzie, also Banks Land (Mercy Bay), Melville Island (Winter Harbor), and other Arctic Islands to about 80° north latitude. Has been recorded in summer in southeastern Alaska ‘(Glacier Bay) and may occa- 20 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. sionally breed. In the Old World breeds from Iceland, the ae Islands, northern British Isles (north coast Scotland, Orkney, oo Shetland Islands, and many of the Hebrides), along the Arctic coas and islands of Europe and Asia to northeastern ‘Siberia. South to the Commander Islands and probably the Kurile Islands. : Breeding grounds protected in the following: national reservation in Alaska: Aleutian Islands (as Agattu, Amchitka, and Kiska). : Winter range-—From Florida (Gulf coast) and southern Cali- fornia (Point Concepcion) southward along both coasts of South America to Argentina (Mar del Plata) and Chile (Valparaiso) and occasionally as far as the Straits of Magellan. In the Eastern Hemi- sphere along the western coast of Europe and Africa to the Cape of Good Hope; also southwestern Asia from the Persian Gulf to the Mekran and Sind coasts, and occasionally New Zealand and Australia. _ . Spring migration.—Northward along both coasts. Early dates of arrival: Off Jacksonville, Florida, April 9; New Jersey, Stone Har- bor, May 27; Massachusetts, May 24 and 31; Greenland, Thank God Harbor, June 14; Washington, Tacoma, May 17; Alaska, St. Michael, May 7; Point Barrow, May 29; Banks Land, May 31; Mackenzie River, June 8. Late dates of departure: Straits of Magellan, March 6; Chile, Valparaiso, March 28; Florida, Matanzas Inlet, May 18; Pennsylvania, Renova, June 18; Ontario, Toronto, June 20; south- ern Labrador, June 21. : Fall migration—Southward along both coasts and irregularly in the interior. Early dates of arrival: Nova Scotia, Sable Island, Sep- tember 9; New Hampshire, Seabrook, September 2; Massachusetts, August 30; Rhode Island, September 2; New York, Long Island, August 6; Brazil, October 26; Argentina, Mar del Plata, October 9; southern Alaska, Cook Inlet, August 22; Washington, Puget Sound, September 2; Chile, Valparaiso, November 6. Late dates of departure: Ontario, October 20; Massachusetts, October 22; Rhode Island, November 27; South Carolina, Charleston, November; Well- ington Channel, September 2; Alaska, Point Barrow, September 9, and St. Michael, September 16; Pribilof Islands, October 18; Wash- ington; Puget Sound, November 8; California, Monterey Bay,. De- cember 12... Casual records——Fall records from the interior are so numerous that they indicate a regular migration route in limited numbers. Egg dates.—Iceland: Sixteen records, May 21 to June 24; eight records, May 26 to June 14. Northern Canada: Twelve records, June 10 to July 8; six records, June 29 to July 8. Northern Alaska: Four records, June 19 and 20 and July 10 and 18. __ Shetland Islands: five records, May 15 to June 26; three records, May 30 to June 15. PL. 4 BULLETIN !18 NATIONAL MUSEUM s. U. . Hersey. FS Michael, Alaskae St . Hersey. Ss F -TAILED JAEGER FOR DESCRIPTION SEE PAGE 329 LONG Michael, Alaska. St LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 21 STERCORARIUS LONGICAUDUS Vieillot. LONG-TAILED JAEGER, HABITS. On the rolling Arctic plains or tundra back of Nome, Alaska, we found these handsome birds very common and a conspicuous feature in the landscape, where they had probably reared their young and were spending the summer in congenial surroundings. Some of them were almost constantly i in sight, and it was a pleasure to watch their graceful evolutions on the wing, as they coursed about the grassy borders of the little tundra ponds in search of food or perched on the little mossy hummocks to rest or to watch for passing birds that they might rob, or for some small mammal on which they might pounce. Certain of these little mounds seemed to be favorite lookout points for certain individuals or pairs, as there were signs of con- tinued occupancy, and we frequently saw the same mound occupied at various times; perhaps each pair of birds has a sort of feudal domain of its own, from which intruders are driven away. Spring.—The long-tailed jaeger retires to its Arctic summer home very early in the season and arrives on its breeding grounds in ad- vance of its congeners. Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) says that it arrives in the vicinity of St. Michael about May 12 or 15, but is not numer- ous until 10 days or more later. Mr. Lucien M. Turner (1886) writes: On their first arrival they are somewhat gregarious, though this may be due to the limited portions of ground free from snow. At this time the little pools of the low ground are being rapidly thawed out; many cracks in the heaving sea ice expose the water to view.. These places are then scanned for food. When the ice in the lakes and larger ponds is melted, these birds usually are hovering in the vicinity, or seated on some knoll watching a gull or tern dive for a fish. Nesting —Doctor Nelson (1887) says of the nesting habits of this species near St. Michael : ‘The mating occurs with a great amount of noisy demonstration on the part of several rivals, but once paired the birds keep by themselves, and early in June deposit their eggs in a depression on the mossy top of some knoll upon rising ground. In one instance, on June 16, while I was securing the eggs of a Macrorhamphus, a pair of these jaegers kept circling about, uttering harsh screams and darting down within a few feet. As I appreached the spot where the snipe’s eggs lay I had noticed these birds on a knoll just beyond, but had paid no attention; but as the birds kept leaving me to hover over the knoll and-then return to the attack, I examined the spot, and there, in a cup-shaped depression in the moss, lay two dark greenish eggs marked with an abundance of spots. During the breeding season these birds and the preceding species have a cunning habit of tolling one away from their nest by dragging them- selves along the ground and feigning the greatest suffering. They roll about among the tussocks, beat their ‘wings,. stagger from side to side, and seem to 22 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. m their starting nce fro be unable to fly, but they manage to increase the dista hn forth on the point at a very respectable rate, and ere long suddenly launc wing. \ Mr. Hersey found a nest of the long-tailed jaeger, with two eggs on the point of hatching, near St. Michael on June 19, 1915. The eggs were laid in a natural depression of irregular shape 0D the top of a dry mound slightly raised above the surrounding wet tundra; there were several higher mounds within a few yards. The female could be plainly seen sitting on her nest from a considerable dis- tance. She allowed him to approach within 20 yards before she flew, when both she and the male swooped about his head. Within 50 feet of this nest a willow ptarmigan was sitting on her nest with Six eggs. ee Mr. Johan Koren, according to Messrs. Thayer and Bangs. (1914), found a remarkable nest of this species, in northeastern Siberia, on June 22, 1912. a The eggs lay in a slight depression on the level, mossy ground in a dry, high, larch forest. Both parent birds were present, and both had acquired the habit of alighting and perching in the tree tops. This was a decided exception to the rule, however, as. the nest is usually placed on some slight elevation on the flat or rolling open tundra, where a few pieces of dry grass, bits of mosses or leaves are scraped together in a slight hollow. The birds are very courage- ous in the defense of the nest, swooping down at the intruder or flying straight at his face and turning or rising just in time to miss striking him. After the young are hatched, however, they become more cautious and seldom approach within gunshot, lest they betray the presence of the young, which are cleverly hidden in the grass. Eggs.—The long-tailed jaeger lays almost invariably two eggs, occasionally only one, and very rarely three. The eggs are almost indistinguishable from those of the parasitic jaeger, but they aver- age slightly smaller and are usually a little more blunt in shape. The shape varies from ovate to short ovate, usually nearer the latter. The shell is smooth and thin, but has very little luster. The ground color varies from “ light brownish olive” or “ Dresden brown,” in the darkest eggs, to “tawny olive,” “Isabella color,” “light yellow- ish olive,” or even “ olive buff,” in the lightest eggs. The eggs are irregularly spotted or blotched, chiefly about the larger end with “raw umber,” “ Prout’s brown,” or other lighter shades of brown. Often there are also numerous underlying spots and_ blotches of various shades of drab. The measurements of 48 eggs in the United States National Museum collection, average 55 by 39 milli- meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measute 61.5 by 42.5, 56 by 50, 47 by 38.5, and 49.5 by 36 millimeters. % U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN Kolyma Delta, Siberia. J. Koren. Northeast Greenland. A. L. V. Manniche. LONG-TAILED JAEGER. FOR DESCRIPTION SEE PAGE 329 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 23 The period of incubation is 23 days. Both sexes incubate. Mr. A. L. V. Manniche (1910) writes: As far as I could notice the sexes divided the breeding duties evenly between themselves. The posture of the bird while brooding is high, the neck and head erected. While the one bird broods, the other guards its mate and the hunt- ing territory. As soon as a bird of the same species or another larger bird appears upon the scene, the watching bird utters a long penetrating cry and attacks the unwelcome guest; having chased him off, the skua again takes its seat near the brooding mate. If you retire some 50 meters the bird will quickly settle upon the nest again. The clamorousness and fearlessness of the bird make it easy to discover nearly every nest, even on a most extensive ter- ritory. . If the eggs be removed from the nest, the skua will nevertheless as a rule lie down upon the nest for some few minutes. In a certain case I saw a bird lying more than half an hour upon the empty nest. -Young.—The chicks, which soon after the hatching leave the nest, seem during the first days to be principally fed with insects. In the gullet of a newly hatehed bird I found a crane-fly (Tipula), but they are even when quite young able to eat lemmings, which the parents hunt, eat, and afterwards dis- gorge before them. The young ones grow very quickly. It is a well-known fact that the young of this skua appear before the first molt in two-color varieties—a pale and a dark. The pale variety seems to occur somewhat more frequently than the dark. ~ , Though this and the preceding species were both common in north- western Greenland, the members of the Crocker Land Expedition failed to find the nest of either. To illustrate the peculiar behavior of this species near its nest, I quote from Mr. Ekblaw’s notes of July 16, 1914, as follows: ; Though I failed to find them I felt confident that I had been very near either the eggs or the young of Stercorarius longicaudus to-day. ' Among the rocks just above Moraine Lake a pair of these birds flew uneasily about me and alighted from time to time near me as I searched at length for the nest that I ‘suspected was on the plateau.'.The male boldly perched. within 40 feet of me, and though the female was shyer she did not leave me far either. An in- genious ‘deceit that the female attempted is worthy of note. After flying nervously near- and about. me she flew to a large bowlder and settled down snugly beside it, to all appearance as if she were returning to her nest. I hastened to the place exultantly, only to find, when the bird flushed, that she had deceived me. After another nervous flight about me she repeated the performance, and again I was deceived, even though I waited until I thought she would tire of her strategy, if deceit it were. When she tried a third time to. delude, me 1 waited to let, her ‘tire, but her patience outwore mine and I finally flushed her. In an hour’s’search of the moraine ‘afterwards I failed to find any nest. Plumages: —The only downy young that I have seen is plainly colored without any dark manliness: Tt varies from “bister” or “ buffy brown ” above to “wood brown ” below, being darkest on the. back. -Yarrell (1871) describes ba nestling i in half. down” as te pale smoke-brown on the downy head and under parts with very dark brown feathers tipped with rufous on the back and wings.” 174785—21——3 24 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. Although the adults of the long-tailed jaeger are not known te have light and dark phases, there seem to be two quite distinct types of coloration in the juvenal plumages. In the dark phase the upper parts are dark “brownish black,” or “clove brown”; the head, neck, and chest are mainly dusky, the latter mottled with “wood brown”; the feathers of the back and wing-coverts are edged with “cinnamon” or “ wood brown,” and the rump 18 spotted with the latter color; the lower parts are mainly buff, mottled and barred, chiefly on the sides and under tail-coverts, with dusky. In the light phase the upper parts are much the same as in the dark phase, but much lighter colored, and the pale “ wood brown” edgings are broader and more prevalent; the head and neck are mainly “ pinkish buff” and the crown is but little darker; the head is uniformly cov- ered with linear streaks of pale dusky; the under parts are largely whitish, tinged with pale “pinkish buff,” nearly immaculate on the breast and belly, but heavily barred on the sides and under tail- coverts with dusky. These descriptions are taken from young birds, collected early in August, in full, fresh, juvenal plumage. Other specimens taken Jate in September show similar well-marked color phases, but birds a year older do not seem to show them. This plum- age is worn, with slight modifications, during the first year; the brown edgings fade out to white and gradually wear away; prob- ably a partial molt occurs during the winter and spring. At the first postnuptial molt, the ‘following summer, a complete change produces the second-year plumage. In this plumage the upper parts are much as in the adult, except that there is only a trace of the yellow on the sides of the head, often none at all; the two central tail feathers now project decidedly beyond their fellows, which was hardly noticeable in the previous plumage; but the under parts are more or less barred with dusky, particularly on the flanks and chest, and heavily so on the under tail-coverts. This plumage is worn for about a year or so until the second postnuptial molt, which is com- plete, beginning in June and lasting through September. At this molt the long central tail feathers and the dusky under tail-coverts are assumed; the young birds then assume the adult plumage when a little over 2 years old. Adults have a partial prenuptial molt in the early spring and a complete postnuptial molt in August, September, and October. The seasonal changes in adults are not conspicuous, though freshly molted birds in the fall have the chin, throat, and neck clouded with light drab and the dark crown less pronounced than in the spring. The characters by which this and the foregoing species can be recognized are somewhat involved and confusing; so, rather than discuss them here, I would refer the student to Dr. L. Stejneger’s (1885) excellent remarks on the subject. . LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 25 Food.—In their summer homes on the tundra these jaegers live on a varied bill of fare. They are said to feed largely on lemmings, field mice (Aficrotus), and other small mammals. They catch flies, butterflies, and other insects and eat their larve. In the summer they rob bird’s nests to devour the eggs and young, and sometimes they pursue and kill wounded birds for food. Probably a few fish are caught and many are stolen from gulls and terns. They also pick up considerable offal of various kinds, as well as small crus- taceans and worms. During the latter part of the season they feed largely on crow-berries (Empetrum nigrum) and other berries. While migrating or during the winter they associate with the smaller gulls and terns, depending largely for food on what they can steal from these industrious birds or what they can pick up, in com- pany with these common scavengers, in the way of garbage. Behavior—To watch the long-tailed jaeger in flight is one of the delights of the Arctic summer, for it is one of the swiftest and most graceful of birds on the wing; its light and slender form is propelled by its long, pointed wings with the speed of an arrow, its broad tail serving as an effective rudder, as it twists and turns in pursuit of its fellows or some luckless gull or tern, with its long central tail feathers streaming in the wind. Doctor Nelson (1887) says: They appear to be much more playful than the other jaegers, and parties of six or eight may be seen pursuing one another back and forth over the marsh. The long, slender tail feathers and extreme grace on the wing of these birds render them very much like the swallow-tailed kite. Mr. Turner (1886) observes that it is “extremely swift on the wing, and when pursuing another bird thrashes the air with wing and tail, giving an undulatory motion to the body.” It swims lightly and gracefully on the water, holding its long tail pointed upward; but I lave never known it to dive below the surface. Doctor Nelson (1887) describes the notes as follows: They have a shrill phéi-phéti-phéi-phéd, uttered while they are flying, and when the birds are quarreling or pursuing one another the ordinary note is often followed by a harsh qua. At other times they have a rattling kr-r-r-r, kr-r-r-r, kr-r-r-r, kri, kri-kri-kri, the latter syllables shrill and querulous and sometimes followed by the long drawn pheii-phet-pheti in the same tone. All writers refer to the predaceous habits of the jaegers. Their be- havior toward other species is certainly not above criticism. On their breeding grounds they have the reputation of being nest robbers, according to the reports of the natives, eating the eggs and small young of any of the birds which are smaller or weaker than them- selves. Such pilfering is done on the sly, however, for the jaeger is far from courageous and is often attacked and driven away from the nests of gulls, terns, curlew, sandpipers, and other shore birds. 26 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. Doctor Nelson (1887) “saw a jaeger swoop down at a duck paddling quietly on the surface of a pond, and the latter went flapping me in mortal terror, while the jaeger passed on, probably highly please at giving the duck such a fright.” Mr. Turner (1886) says: Should one of their kind be shot and slightly wounded the others will gather around it, and if not frightened away will soon dispatch their comrade. Mr. Hersey’s notes on the long-tailed jaeger at St. Michael state: I have found this jaeger to be more peaceable and less given to chasing the gulls than the parasitic. I have seen as many as five or six of this species and a dozen or more short-billed gulls feeding in company on the refuse from the. hotel, which had been put on a scow to be carried out into the bay and dumped; each bird paid no heed to his companions and there was no quarreling. The small shore birds and longspurs seem to regard him as an enemy, however, and follow him about over the tundra whenever one appears. Both this and the parasitic jaeger show caution when among a flock of glaucous gulls, and I have never seen them attempt to molest one of these large birds. At times they bother the little Sabine’s gulls. Mr. Frank C. Hennessey, who has sent me his notes on the birds of Winter Harbor, says, on the other hand, that “they tyrannize all others of their tribe, including the snowy owl, and make known their presence by successions of sharp but not discordant cries. These birds, considering their size, are quite able to fight for and defend themselves, particularly when any intruder may happen to encroach on the locality in which their nest is situated; in such a case they have been known to even attack the Arctic fox.” Mr. A. L, V. Manniche (1910) writes: Not rarely I observed falcons pursued by skuas (Lestris longicauda). At the end of August the young skuas will frequently be sitting around on stones, still cared for by their parents, which with extreme violence will guard their offspring against attack from falcons. The skuas exceed by far the gyrfalcons in ability of flight, and the falcons therefore always wish to escape the pursuit and retire to the rocks. Most frequently three or four. skuas would join in an attack. The battle would usually be fought out immensely high up in the air. ‘Mr. Walter H. Rich has contributed the following notes on the behavior of jaegers on the fishing banks among the shearwaters: Both yagers and skuas bully the “hags,” dropping on their backs as often as these latter are found enjoying ‘a dainty bit. The yagers fight and quarrel much among themselves also. On several occasions the writer saw them clinch in the air to fall 20 or 30 feet, striking and clawing all the while. Only rarely do they annoy the skuas, and then somewhat carefully, usually in breezy' weather, when they may the more easily escape consequences through their superior abilities in maneuvering; less often still do they trouble the large gulls, as the “black backs.” Of the latter species I saw one in the brown plumage, when weaving his dignified flight through a cloud of “ kittiwakes,” turn suddenly to shoot upward and seize a long-tailed yager by the flank, bringing away a mouthful of feathers with a wicked side wrench of his head, causing the victim to Squeal in angry indignation and put on full power ahead. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 27 It seemed to be sheer malevolence on the gull’s part, for the yager was merely balancing before and above him in the gale, unmindful of his enemy’s presence until the blow fell. Yet it may have been the payment of some ancient grudge. The behavior of this and the foregoing species among the gulls and terns along on coasts is well known and has already been well described under the previous species. But the following passage from Audubon (1840) seems worth quoting: It generally passes through the air at a height of 50 or 60 yards, flying in an easy manner, ranging over the broad bays, on which gulls of various kinds are engaged in procuring their food. No sooner has it observed that one of them has secured a fish than it immediately flies toward it and gives chase. It is almost impossible for the gull to escape, for the warrior, with repeated jerkings of his firm pinions, sweeps toward it with the rapidity of a peregrine falcon pouncing on a duck. Each cut and turn of the gull only irritates him the more and whets his keen appetite until, by two or three sudden dashes, he forces it to disgorge the food it had so lately swallowed. This done, the poor gull may go in search of more; the lestris. is now for a while contented and alights on the water to feed at leisure. But soon, perceiving a distant flock of gulls, he rises on wing and speeds toward them. Renewing his attacks, he now obtains an abundant supply and at length, when quite gorged, searches for a place on which to alight unseen by any other of his tribe more powerful than himself. Fall—During the months of August and September the jaegers. old and young, leave their northern breeding grounds and start on their southward migration, and the first arrivals often appear on the coasts of New England and California during the former month; showing that some individuals must start very early or must mi- grate very rapidly. Doctor Nelson (1887) says that “the long- tailed species is less frequently found at sea than the last, and is rarely found about the ice pack north of Bering Straits.” Numerous rec- ords from the interior of the United States and Canada would seem to indicate that the main migration route is overland rather than coastwise. : Winter—Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1915) makes the remarkable statement that “it seems probable that the long-tailed jaeger does not regularly winter anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. The winter home is in the Eastern Hemisphere, south to Gibraltar on the Atlantic side and to Japan on the Pacific.” He evidently regards all the numerous fall records on both coasts and in the interior as accidental occurrences and either overlooks or disregards Audubon’s (1840) statement that this species “often ranges” to the coasts of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico in winter; as well as Wayne’s (1910) more recent records for South Carolina in December and Florida in February, where it was “ observed in numbers.” 28 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. DISTRIBUTION. Breeding range.—Arctic coasts of both hemispheres. In North America from northwestern Alaska (Yukon Delta) along the coast at least as far east as Franklin Bay; on Ellesmere Land, Grinnell Land, and northern Greenland (on the west coast from Disco Bay north to 82° and on the east coast from Scoresby Sound north to 80°) ; probably on other islands in the Arctic Archipelago. South to north- ern Labrador (Cape Chidley), Southampton Island, and the west coast of Hudson Bay (probably as far south as York Factory). In the Eastern Hemisphere Iceland, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, the coast of northern Scandinavia, the Kola Peninsula, the Lower Pet- chora River, and the Arctic coast of Siberia south at least to the Gulf of Anadyr and St. Lawrence Island. . Winter range—American winter records are very scarce. Has been seen at Caper’s Island, South Carolina, on December 21, and off the St. Johns River, Florida, in February; has been taken once in California (Hyperion), January 26; taken and reported common in Argentina (Mar del Plata) in October; and taken in Chile (Val- paraiso) in March and November. In the Eastern Hemisphere it winters south to Gibraltar and the Mediterranean, and on the Asiatic side to the northern Kurile Islands. _ Spring migration—kEarly dates of arrival: Florida, east coast, April 8; New Jersey, 80 miles off Barnegat, May 6; Ellesmere Land, Cape Sabine, May 23; northeastern Greenland, latitude 80°, May 28 to June 6. Dates of arrival in Alaska: St. Michael, May 12 to 15; Nulato, May 15; Kowak River, May 22; Point Barrow, May 30; Demarcation Point, May 24. Taken at Vancouver Island, May 11. | Fall migration —Southward along both coasts and through the in- terior. Early dates of arrival: Massachusetts, Woods Hole, August 12; Connecticut, Wallingford, August 30; Alaska, Forrester Island, August 24; British Columbia, Chilliwack, August 23; California, Monterey Bay, August 2. Late dates of departure: Ellesmere Land. Fort Conger, August 30; Massachusetts, Monomoy Island, September 29, and Woods Hole, October 13; Alaska, Point Barrow, August 21, and St. Michael, September 12; British Columbia, Okanagan Land- ing, September 18; California, September 19. Interior dates: South- ampton Island, August 17; Manitoba, Lake Winnipeg, September and October 8; Missouri, Lake Como, October; Indiana, August 20, September 11 and 12, and November 30; Tlinois, Cairo, November. Egg dates—Northern Alaska: Ten records, June 6 to July 12; five records, June 8 to 19. Northern Canada: Sixteen records, June 16 to July 12; eight records, June 27 to 30. Lapland: Nine records, June 2 to 20; four records, June 14 to 18. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 29 Family LARIDAE, Gulls and Terns. PAGOPHILA ALBA (Gunnerus). IVORY GULL. HABITS. This beautiful, snow-white gull of the Arctic regions is decidedly boreal in summer and seldom wanders far south even in winter. It is circumpolar in its distribution and has been noted by nearly all Arctic explorers in both hemispheres. The names “ ice-partridge” and “snow-bird,” which are applied to this species, are both very appropriate, for the bird lives almost constantly in the vicinity of ice and snow, where its spotless plumage matches its surroundings. It is largely a bird of the open polar seas, frequenting the edges of the ice floes in company with the fulmars and other Arctic sea birds, and seldom resorting to the land except during the breeding season. Nesting.—Prof. Robert Collett (1888) has given us a very good account of the nesting habits of the ivory gull, based on information furnished by Capt. Johannesen, who visited a breeding colony on the small island of Storéen, near Spitzbergen, in 1887. I quote from his excellent paper, as follows: On the 8th of August, when he visited the island, he found young birds in all stages, from newly hatched to fully fledged, together with a small number of eggs, which, however, were on the point of hatching, and in all probability not one would have been left a week later. Storden is about 9 English miles in length and 6 in breadth; the greater part of its surface is covered by a glacier, which rises to a height of about 400 feet; the remaining portions consist of sand and gravel, with here and there small stones, likewise oases covered with moss; while in a few places the ground consisted only of rock. L. eburneus was breeding on the northeast side of the island, close to, or only a short way above, high-water mark, on low-lying ground like L. canus, L. fuseus, ete., and not in the cliffs. Capt. Johannesen estimated the number of nests at from 100 to 150; they were somewhat apart, at distances varying from 2 to 4 yards. There were one or two eggs or young, but never more in a nest. On being examined at Tromsé it was found that all the 19 eggs contained almost fully developed young chicks. Many of the nests contained young of various ages, whilst others were already empty. Several black-spotted young, capable of flight, were seen, likewise several young birds of the previous year’s brood remained on the breeding ground. The nest is composed chiefly of green moss, which forms about nine-tenths of its mass. The rest consists of small splinters of driftwood, a few feathers, single stalks, and leaves of algae, with one or two particles of lichen. No trace of straw is to be found; a couple of pebbles may possibly have appertained to the underlayer of the nest. The mosses occur in pieces the size of a walnut, or less, and have evidently been plucked in a fresh state from a dry subsoil, either on rocks or gravelly places. The mosses are all sterile. Several of the splinters of driftwood were found of a length of about 100 millim. Under the microscope they all proved to be of conifers, probably larch, drifted from the Siberian rivers. Some were very old; 30 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. others, however, being still bard and possessing a fresh appearance. Barts feathers, of which only a few were found, are snowy white and have pro ! fallen from the brooding bird. Some portions of the algae were dry, crumpie leaves and stalks of seaweed. Only a few bits of a lichen were found, which appear to have got in accidentally.’ on A most interesting account of the home life of this species in Franz Josef Land is published. by Mr. W. Eagle Clarke (1898), 3 in which he quotes “from the journal of Mr. William S. Bruce vp t the Jackson- Harmsworth Expedition, as follows: August 7, To-day we landed at Cape Mary Harmsworth, and the ‘frst: thing we noted was an immense number of ivory gulls, and from their demonstrations and shriekings it soon became evident that they were nesting. As we traveled across the low-lying spit we found this was so. Here there are 5 or 6 square miles or more of fairly level ground, more or less terraced, being evidently a series of raised beaches. This, if not the largest, is one of the. largest areas of bare ground in Franz Josef Land. Beyond a few lichens and occasional patches of moss there is very, little vegetation, only two flowering plants being, found—a saxifragé and a grass, and these very sparingly, indeed. There is very little actual soil, and the surface is rough and rugged with large stones. Scattered all over it are numerous fresh-water ponds, the largest of them perhaps 200 yards across. The first signs of the ivory gulls’ nests were patches of old moss every here and there, which at first we could not make out. As we advanced we saw more of these patches, and these seemed more compact. On approaching closer to these the birds made still more vehement demonstrations, swooping down upon us and giving vent to their feelings by uttering a perfectly aire shriek close to our heads. Once in: the midst of their nests—for these matched of moss were their nests—-we had many hundreds of birds around us, first one swooping down to within a foot of our heads, and immediately after another. In some cases they actually touched us, and in one instance knocked the hat off a man’s head. Most of the nests were empty, owing to the late date; but here and there was a single egg, and in two nests I found two eggs. Going on through this gullery we found that near certain nests, which were apparently empty, the birds made even more violent demonstrations than before, and in: looking carefully about we descried a young ivory gull in its. greyish-white downy plumage, and hardly visible against the stones, which were of a very similar color. Even the older ones, which were more whitish, were difficult to see among the stones. These young birds would sit crouched in between two or three large stones, and-one might at first sight take them for stones also. On picking up a young bird the parents became quite distracted and threatened us more vehemently than ever. By-and-by we passed out of this gullery, but further along we could see others, each with many hundreds of these birds, and we advanced toward them. The gullery we left gradually became quiet;:but the birds in the one which we were approaching were beginning to demonstrate in the same way as those at the last. The cries became louder and louder, and in a few minutes we were again in the midst of the deafening shrieks of a host of terrified yet defiant birds. Again they swooped down upon us, and it seemed quite likely that at any moment they might dash into our faces. So we passed on from gullery to gullery among many thousand of these birds. It was a magnificent Sight; the sun was shining brightly in a blue sky, the air was clear, and these handsome birds in their: pure white plumage added brilliancy to the scene. Each nest U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN [13 PL. 6 SEE ST AER CRE I PANIES oy Pt EMI I Northeast Greenland. A. L. V. Manniche. IvoRY GULL. . FOR DESCRIPTION SEE PAGE 329, LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 81 is, as I have said, composed of a pile of moss, in shape a trutvated cone, and may be from 6 to 9 inches in height and from 18 inches to 2 feet in diameter. There is no hollow on the top of this more or less level pile, upon which the egg is deposited or the young bird sits. I noticed many dead young birds, some quite recently deceased, for they were still warm, while others had been dead for some time. In nearly every case their crania had been indented. Doctor Malmgren, of the Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen in 1861, found a colony of ivory gulls breeding in entirely different situ- ations. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1884) quote from his notes, as follows: On the 7th of July, 1861, I found on the north shore of Murchison Bay, latitude 80° N., a number of ivory gulls established on the side of a steep limestone precipice some hundred feet high in company with the Rissa tridactyla and Larus glaucus. The last named occupied the higher zones of the precipice. The Larus eburneus, on the other hand, occupied the niches and clefts lower down, at a height of from 50 to 100 feet. I could plainly see that the hen birds were sitting on their nests, but these were inaccessible. Circumstances did not permit before the 30th of July my making the attempt, with the help of a long rope and some necessary assistance, to get at the eggs. With the assistance vf three men I succeeded in reaching-two of the lowest in situation, and each contained one egg. The nest was artless and without connection and con- sisted of a shallow depression 8 or 9 inches broad in a loose clay or mold on a sublayer of limestone. Inside the nest was carefully lined with dry plants, moss, grasses, and the like, and a few feathers. The eggs were much in- cubated and already contained down-clad young. Both of the hen birds were shot upon their nests and are now in the National Museum. The male birds were at first observable, but disappeared when we began the work of reaching their nests. Eggs. —The ivory gull lays a set of one or two eggs. Two of the eggs taken by Captain Johannesen are in our National Museum, and Major Bendire (1888) has described them as follows: Their ground color is buffish olive; in one egg, somewhat paler, perhaps more of an olive-drab tint. The surface markings, more or less irregularly dis- tributed over the entire egg,. vary from clove-brown to bistre. The underlying or shell markings vary from slate to lilac-gray in tint and predominate in the larger specimen. In the smaller and darker one, both styles of markings are about equally distributed. The two kinds of spots vary Canseetaoly in size and shape. Professor Collett (1888) describes nine of the eggs, as follows: The ground color of five specimens is almost entirely alike—viz, a light grayish-brown tint, with faint admixture of yellowish green, such as often appears on the eggs of L. canus; which, however, have often a deeper brown er green hue. In structure and gloss all nine eggs greatly resemble those of L. canus; but the granulations under the microscope are a little coarser, more uneven, and in larger numbers; on the other hand, the granulations are per- ceptibly finer than in L. fuseus. The eggs are easily distinguished from those of Rissa tridactyla by their greater gloss, and the small excrescences do not lie quite so crowded, and are a little more flattened than they usually are in the last-mentioned species, 32 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. The measurements of 32 eggs in various collections average 60.5 by 43.6 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 69.3 by 41.5, 62.6 by 44.6, 57 by 43. and 60.5 by 40 millimeters. Plumages.—Prof. Collett (1888) describes the downy young og “white all over; the down white to the root”; and says that ‘even in this. first stage the young in down may be distinguished from the young of other species by the strong and hooked .claws, especially on the hind toe, the somewhat, marginated web on the toes, and the forward nostrils. The downy covering is particularly close; Z. eburneus in this respect is more closely related to the other species of Larus than to Rissa, the hairlike tips being shorter.” A downy young bird in Doctor Bishop’s collection, collected on King Charles Island on August 3, 1901, is covered with long, soft down, evenly colored above and below, “ pallid mouse gray ” shading into “ pearl gray ” at the base of the down. This is an older bird, how- ever, as the first feathers are appearing on the scapulars. Mr. Howard Saunders, in his edition of Yarrell (1871) says: The nearly fledged young are describéd by Richardson* as having ash-gray backs; but with ‘regard to the subsequent stages of ‘plumage there is an absence of satisfactory details, and the editor can only place the following facts before his readers: In the autumn of 1880 Mr. Leigh Smith brought back from Franz-Josef Land a bird which was supposed to be the survivor of several young taken from the nest, and which was presented to the zoological gardens. Its prevailing tone was gray, owing, perhaps, to the saturation of the plumage with grease and dirt acquired on board the steam yacht, where the bird is said to have frequented the stokehole; but after constant washing since its arrival at the gardens the bird still remained of a smoke gray, nearly as dark as a fulmar petrel on the upper parts, and especially so on the tail coverts, the feathers of the back and wing coverts having slightly darker shafts, and the head bearing not merely a mask but a short hood of a darker gray than the neck and the underparts. The tail was reduced by abrasion to a mere stump. Such was the description given by the editor when the bird was supposed to be from three to four months old,’ and its correctness can be corroborated by other observers. It was naturally expected that at the next moult the bird would pass into the well-known spotted plumage, but no spots made their appearance, and this example at once assumed the pure white plumage which it now (April, 1884) displays. This omission of the spotted Stage may, perhaps, be owing to captivity in a comparatively warm climate; the editor is unable to account for it. The ordinary immature or first-winter plumage is white, heavily mottled with dusky or dark grayish spots on the sides of the head and throat, concentrating into almost solid color i in. the loral region; scattering spots of the same slate-gray are on the hind neck and upper back. The scapulars have. subterminal dusky spots, as do also many of the lesser and nearly all of the greater wing coverts and tertials. The primaries, secondaries, and rectrices are broadly 1 Journal of a boat-voyage, p. 281. 2 Zoologist, 1880, p. 484: LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 33 tipped with dusky, narrowly edged with white. As to how long this plumage is worn or at what age the adult, pure white plumage is acquired, I am in doubt. Selby (1833) says: As the bird advances in age the brown spots and bars gradually decrease at each molt, and it is supposed to be perfectly matured in two years and a half. I very much doubt if it requires any such time as two years to reach maturity, and I have never seen a bird with any spots on it at all, except a few on the edge of the wing, which I thought was over a year old. Probably the dusky tips wear away somewhat during the winter or are partially replaced by white feathers at an incom- plete prenuptial molt, and at the first postnuptial molt the pure white adult plumage is assumed; but, unfortunately, I have not been able to study sufficient material to determine this with certainty or to understand fully the seasonal molts of adults. Adults ap- parently have but one complete annual molt in July and August. I have seen an adult which had not begun to molt its much-worn plumage on July 3, and another, in fresh plumage, which had com- pleted the molt on August 30. These are in the Dwight collection, which also contains two specimens, taken July 6 and 13, molting both wings and tails, and another, taken on May 30, in which the wings are molting, beginning with the inner primaries. Food.—The feeding habits of the ivory gull are hardly becoming a bird of such pure and spotless plumage. It is a greedy and vora- cious feeder and is none too particular about the quality of its food or how it obtains it. When some of these birds have been feeding on the carcass of a whale they present a sorry.spectacle, for in their eagerness to satisfy their gluttonous appetite they crowd them- selves into the entrails of the animal and their beautiful white plumage becomes smeared with blood. They are particularly fond of the blubber and flesh of whales, walruses, and seals, even when somewhat putrid, and, when busily engaged in such a feast they are tame and unsuspicious. Nothing in the way of animal food comes amiss to them and they even frequent the holes in the ice used by seals for the purpose of feeding on the excrement of these ani- mals. Pieces of meat, blood, or offal from slain animals scattered on the ice or snow will always attract them. Any refuse thrown from the galley of a ship is readily picked up. Mr. Kumlien (1879) says that he once saw one try to swallow the wing of an eider, which the cook threw overboard. They also feed to a large extent on lem- mings and other small rodents. On their breeding grounds, in the Polynia Islands, Captain McClintock (1856) found the bleached bones of lemmings scattered about their nests, “also fresh pellets, consisting of their bones and hair.” 34 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. Behavior.—The flight of the ivory gull is said to be light and graceful. Yarrell (1871) says “that its note is shrill and not un- like that of the Arctic tern, and its flight is more like that of a tern than of an ordinary gull.” Nuttall (1834) writes: “Its only note consists of a loud and disagreeable scream.” Selby: (1833) says: “Tts voice is strong and harsh.” Mr. A. L.,V. Manniche. (1910) says: “This pretty bird, with its short but sonorous note,, would make a wonderfully animating impression in these silent and deso- late surroundings.” - : Winter.—The migration amounts merely to a withdrawal from its breeding grounds and such northern portions of its summer range as are rendered uninhabitable by the closing in of ice and snow. The species is merely forced southward by the advance of winter condi- tions and frequents the more or less open edge of, the ice pack all winter. Mr. Clarke (1898) makes this statement: Dr. Neale records that in the autumn of 1881 the ivory gulls departed from Cape Flora (Franz Josef Land) at the end of October, and arrived there the following spring on the 20th of April. Dr. Nansen observed them for the first time in 1896 as early as the 12th of March, at his winter quarters on Frederick Jackson Island. : On the Labrador coast it seems to occur in the late fall only. Mr. Kumlien (1879) noted it as “ very common” in Cumberland Sound “just before it froze up, for a few days only.” Doctor Townsend (1907) writes: Dr. Mumford, Mr. Frank Lewis, and others at Battle Harbor told us of shoot- ing “ice patridges,” which came with-the ice and seals in November or Decem- ber. They stay for about two weeks or a month and then depart, not to be seen again for a year. At times they are very abundant and even fly, about the houses. These birds are shot for food, and.are often obtained in the following manner: About a gallon of seals’ blood is poured on the ice near the rocks, and as the birds hover about they are easily shot. Some of the birds in their eager- ness to obtain the blood dash themselves with such force against the ice as to kill themselves. A recent occurrence of the ivory gull in Portland Harbor, Maine, is recorded by Mr. Arthur H. Norton (1918); he and Mr. Walter H. Rich observed it at short range on January 5, 1918. He says: The snowy whiteness of its plumage was always noticeably different from any other gull in the harbor, which contained at the time an abundance of Larus argentatus in all plumages, Larus kumlieni, and Larus leucopterus. Its habits and flight also differed distinctly; it was much more restless, now alighting on the ice, either to remain at rest for a few minutes, or to feed at.the water's edge, and then away to search the edge of the ice field or to, feed near some of the docks. It seemed to pay little or no attention to the other gulls or their feeding. On the ice it ran rapidly, suggesting the action of a large plover. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 35 Its restlessness and independent action suggested to me the action of Larus atricilla, as it appears in the company of Larus argentatus. Its dashing flight seemed more like that of a jaeger than that of a gull. The wing was used at full extent with very little flexure at humero-radial and carpal joints, and was broad and wedge shaped in comparison with the narrower wing of Larus argenatus. It was seen for the last time January 7 by Mr. Rich, though daily watch has been kept to the present time (Feb. 22, 1918). During the period that the bird was seen the mercury was hardly rising above 0° F., and the harbor and bay was a solid field of ice except as broken by the ever busy tugs laboring to keep an open channel. DISTRIBUTION. Breeding range. —High northern latitudes, probably circumpolar. Known breeding places: Prince Patrick Island, Melville Island (Winter Harbor), northern Baffin Land (Port Bowen) , and northern Greenland (Kane Basin and Kennedy Channel, and on the north- eastern coast from latitude 74° to 81°); also said to have bred at Darnley Bay, east of Franklin Bay, on the Arctic coast. In the Eastern Hemisphere, at Storden near Spitzbergen and Franz Josef Land, Winter range. —Probably the open circumpolar seas as far north as unfrozen water occurs. Said to occur in some numbers in winter in southern Greenland and along the Labrador coast. In Europe it occasionally winters about the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland and northern France. Many winter records are of single birds, probably. stragglers. Spring migration.—Karly dates of arrival: Melville Island, Win- ter Harbor, May 24; Ellesmere Land, Peterman Fiord, May 28; Greenland, Etah, June 1; Prince Patrick Island, June 12.’ Late dates of departure: Quebee, Godbout, March 7; ‘Labrador, Sand- wich Bay, June 12; Alaska, Point Barrow, May 29 to June 2. Fall qa gritionE alland winter wanderings are erratic. Dates of arrival: Cumberland Gulf, October 24 and November 5; Anti- costi Island, October; Quebec, Godbout, December 9; New Bruns- wick, St. John, November ; Maine, Portland, January 4 and 5; Massa- chusetts, Monomoy Island, December 1; Long Island, Sayville, January 5; Bering Strait, November 9; ‘Commander Islands, ‘De- cember 2. Dates of departure: Ellesmere Land, Lincoln Bay, Sep- tember 1; Wellington Channel, September 15; Boothia Felix, Sep- tember 21; Alaska, Point Pace. September 35 to October 10. Casual records—Has occurred twice in British Columbia (Dease Lake, Cassiar, September, 1899, and Penticton, Okanagan Lake, Oc- tober, 1897). # Rare or accidental in Ontario (Toronto, Datemibar 25, 1887). 36 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. RISSA TRIDACTYLA TRIDACTYLA (Linnaeus). KITTIWAKE, HABITS. The hardy kittiwake has been well named, on the New England coast, the “ frost gull »” or the “winter gull, % for its arrival seems to indicate the coming of hard frosts and the beginning of real winter. It seems to bring with it the first cold breath of ice and snow from the rugged Arctic coasts where it makes its summer home. This species is always associated in my mind with icebergs and the great Greenland ice packs, which drift southward with the Arctic current, and in its summer home, with the dark, frowning cliffs of the frozen north, which tower for hundreds of feet above the stormy ice-bound seas until lost to sight in shrouds of mist and fog, where the “ frost gulls” find a safe retreat in which to rear their hardy offspring. Spring—According to Hagerup (1891) the kittiwakes arrive in Greenland early in April: From their arrival till the middle of May they keep together in one or more large flocks, and are then very timid and noisy. This is, perhaps, because the fjord is to a great extent covered with ice, so that their nesting ground lies 8 to 10 miles from open water. On clear days in April a flock of some 2,000 may be seen rising to a great height, say 3,000. and to 4,000 feet, sometimes going out of sight, so that one can only hear their screeching as they rapidly wheel about. They are then wont to make an excursion inland, above the ice, toward their breeding place. On returning they descend somewhat more scattered; but at once, on reaching the water, they gather close together. These exercises they often go through many times a day. In May they assemble in smaller flocks and are less shy. About 2,000 lay their eggs on the front of a perpendicular cliff situated at the head of the fjord. The lowest nests may easily be reached from a boat; the highest are about 150 feet above the sea. The eggs are laid chiefly during the first 10 days of June, and the young fly from their nests about the middle of August. (The earliest date on which I have seen a young bird is the 7th of August.) After that they generally go about in small fiocks or singly and keep comparatively silent. On a few. occasions only, on August afternoons, I have seen large flocks of 500 to 1,000 individuals rise toa great height and fly toward the ocean. Courtship.—Mr. Edmund Selous (1905) says, in referring to the courtship of the kittiwake, that the inside of the mouth is of “a fine rich red, or orange red color,” and that “both sexes open their bills widely and crane about, with their heads turned toward each other, whilst at the same time uttering their shrieking, clamorous cry. The motion, however, is often continued after the cry has ceased, and this we might expect if the birds took any pleasure in the bril- liant gleam of color which each presents to and, as it were, flashes about in front of the other.” U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN [13 PL. 7 Bird Rock, Quebec. A.C, Bent. KITTIWAKE. FOR DESCRIPTION SEE PAGE 329, LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 37 Mr. W. Elmer Ekblaw, in his Greenland notes, says: About June 10 the kittiwake begins mating. The rivalry for mates and nests is keen, and the struggles over the nests are bitter and prolonged. I watched two birds fight for a nest for over an hour. When one alighted upon the nest he turned at once with open bill and angry scream to meet the rival which he expected to attack him at once. Usually the other claimant for the nest was quick in his attempt to eject the first. With bills locked like the jaws of fighting bull terriers, they wrestled with each other, shaking and tugging and pulling fiercely until they fell off the ledge and fluttered to the ice still in death grip. Once on the ice they soon ceased their combat, and separated, both angrily screaming. The contest was many times repeated. Nesting.—The kittiwake is decidedly an oceanic gull, being seldom seen inland, except as a wanderer on migrations, and breeding on the rocky cliffs and crags of our Arctic coasts exposed to all the fury of ocean storms in which it seems to delight. On the Greenland coast most of the large breeding colonies are on the high cliffs near the heads of deep fjords, but farther south the preference seems to be for lofty rocky islands. My first intimate study of the nesting habits of the Atlantic kitti- wake was made on the famous Bird Rocks, in the Gulf of St. Law- rence, in 1904, one of the southernmost outposts of its breeding range. We landed here in a small boat, late in the evening of June 23, under rather exciting circumstances. As the great cliffs towered above us in the moonlight we saw a lantern coming down the ladder to show us where to land and we ran in among the breakers. There was a crash which brought us to our feet as we struck an unseen rock; but the next wave carried us over it and landed us among the rocks and flying‘ spray. We were overboard in an instant, struggling in the surf up to’ our waists, for the boat was rapidly filling, as wave after wave broke over us. A few moments of rapid work served to unload our baggage and attach a stout line to the boat, the signal was passed aloft and the powerful steam winch above landed her high and dry. After exchanging hearty greetings with our genial’ host, Captain Bourque, we enjoyed the novel experience of being hoisted up in a crate to the top of the cliff, over 100 feet high. It was certainly a new and interesting sensation to feel ourselves slowly rising in the darkness up the face of these somber cliffs, with the surf thundering on the rocks below us and with a cloud of screaming seabirds hover- ing about us, barely discernible in the moonlight, like a swarm of ghostly bats whose slumber had been disturbed and who were pro- testing at our rude intrusion. On the following day the wind was blowing a gale and clouds of sea birds were drifting about the rock in a bewildering maze, 10,000 of them in all. There were great white gannets sailing on long pow- erful wings, tipped with black; clouds of snowy kittiwakes hovering 38 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. in the air; hundreds of swift-winged murres and razor-billed auks darting out from the cliffs; and quaint little parties of curious puffins perched on the rocks. There was a constant babel of voices, the mingled cries of the varied throngs; deep, guttural croaks and hoarse grunts from the gannets; a variety of soft purring notes from the murres; and sharp, piercing cries from the active kittiwakes dis- tinctly pronouncing the three syllables for which they are named, as if beseeching us to “ keep away ” from their precious nests. For a more intimate study of their nesting habits we were lowered down the face of the cliff in a crate, dangling at the end of a long rope and whirling helplessly about in space, but within a few feet of the confiding, gentle birds on their nests. They were so ac- customed to the intimacy of man that it was an easy matter to study and photograph the dainty creatures at short range. Their nests were scattered all over the perpendicular face of the cliff, on every available little shelf. I was surprised to see how small and narrow a ledge could support a nest in safety. The nests were firmly and well built of seaweeds, grasses, and mosses, and were securely plastered on to the rock; apparently they were made of wet seaweed: which adhered firmly to the rock as it. dried; evi- dently the nests had been used for successive seasons, fresh material being added each year. They were deeply cupped and well built up on the outer sides, so as to form safe cradles for the young. Incu- bation was far advanced at this date (June 24), and many. of the eggs had hatched.. The nests must, indeed, be well built to hold the weight of two lusty young and the brooding parent in such pre- carious situations. Mr. Ora W. Knight (1908) gives the dimen- sions of a nest found on Baccalieu Island, Newfoundland. “Its diameter at base was 1 foot, and at top 8 inches;. interior diameter, 6 inches; and depth, 2 inches.” Eggs—The kittiwake is said to lay as many as four or -five eggs, but I believe that two is the usual number; that three eggs are rarely laid; and that larger numbers. are very unusual. I am quite sure that more than 90 per cent of the nests that I have seen have held only two eggs. Often only a single egg is hatched. The eggs vary in shape from somewhat pointed ovate to short ovate, rarely elongate ovate; the shell is thin and: smooth, but without much lustre. The ground color:.varies from “ pinkish buff” or “olive buff” to “cartridge buff,” “ pale olive buff,” or bluish white. ‘The spots are irregular in arrangement, size, and shape; most eggs have underlying spots or blotches of “light Quaker drab” or “light mouse gray”; these are either overlaid or mixed with darker. spots, blotches, or scrawls of “clay color,” “snuff brown,” “tawny, olive,” “Vandyke brown,” or “sepia” of various shades.: The measure. ments of 41 eggs in various collections average 56.1 by 40.8 milli- oF U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN I13 PL. 8 Bird Rock, Quebec. A.C. Bent. ae Bird Rock, Quebec. A.C. Bent. KITTIWAKE. FoR DESCRIPTION SEE PAGE 330 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 39 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 62.5 by 42.5, 58 by 43.5, 53 by 39 and 55 by 37.5 millimeters. _: Young.—The period of incubation is said to be 26 days. Probably both sexes incubate, as both parents are usually together at the nest and both are devoted to the young. The young remain in the nest, where they are fed by their parents, until they are fully fledged. The narrow confines of the usual nest, on its small shelf of rock, per- mit. no wandering habits, as common among other gulls. Any attempt to stray from the nest would usually result in a disastrous fall from a dizzy height to dangerous rocks or surf below; so the young birds must of necessity stay in. the nest until able to fly. Many such:.fatal accidents probably occur, which serve to keep in check the;increase of the species, which.is otherwise secure from molestation on its nesting grounds. 2 . On North Bird Rock, where many of the. nests, are on the lower ledges, I noticed on July 24, 1915, that many: of the nearly fledged young had been able to crawl or jump out of the nests and were wandering: about over the flat rocks below the cliffs, though they were not able to fly. Many of the older young were already on the wing at this date and a few were still in the nests. Plumages.—The newly hatched young is covered with long, soft, glossy down, which is white and spotless, but tinged basally with yellowish gray and buffy on the back and thighs, and tipped with dusky, giving it a grizzly appearance, quite unlike other young gulls. The young bird grows rapidly and soon begins to assume the first winter, plumage, which appears first on the scapulars, then on the wings, back, and neck. There is no strictly juvenal plumage in this species. Th, the first winter plumage the bill is black; there is a blackish patch on the hind neck; the lesser wing-coverts and some- times the greater wing-coverts and scapulars are largely black; the tail has a broad black band at the tip; the dusky spots on the head, before and behind the eye, are darker than in adults. A partial molt occurs early in the spring, usually in February and March, but sometimes as early as December, in which most of the dusky feathers in the head are replaced by white or lighter colored feathers and the black lesser wing-coverts disappear. At the first postnuptial molt in August young birds become indistinguishable from adults when one year old, a complete molt producing the adult winter plumage. A partial prenuptial molt, involving the head, neck, and body feathers, produces the adult nuptial plumage with the pure white head and yellow bill. Adults have a complete molt in the prac, producing the well-known winter plumage. ' Food.—A flock of feeding kittiwakes is an animated and a pretty sight. During the latter part of the summer they assemble in enor- mous numbers in the numerous bays.and “tickles” of the Labrador * 174785 —21—_4 40 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. coast, and congregate about the fishing vessels to pick up the scraps that are thrown overboard. A school of small fry, swimming near the surface, soon attracts an interested throng of these little gulls which hover over them and scream excitedly as they gently swoop down with elevated wings to pick the small fish from the surface without wetting a feather. Although small fishes procured in this way constitute the principal food of the kittiwake, it also eats crus- taceans, aquatic larve, and other marine animals which it gleans from the water. It feeds to some extent along the beaches and on the bare sand flats at low tide, where it finds various small mollusks, crustaceans, and other marine invertebrates. Often large flocks are seen feeding in the flats. It is less of a scavenger than the larger gulls and less given to frequenting the inner harbors. It is said to drink salt water exclusively, being seldom seen inland. Mr. Brew- ster (1883) reports a captive kittiwake that refused fresh water and drank salt: water eagerly. Behavior.—-The flight of the ditigaxs is buoyant, graceful, and easy. Audubon (1840) describes its movements, in his usual graphic style, as follows: ‘Bearing up against the heaviest sales it passes from one trough of the sea to another as if anxious to rest for an instant under the lee of the billows; ‘yet as these are seen to rear their curling crests, the gull is already several feet above them and preparing to plunge into the next hollow. ‘While in our harbor, and during fine weather, they seemed to play with their companions of -other species. Now with a spiral curve they descend toward the water, support themselves by beats of their wings, decline their heads, and pick up a young herring or some bit of garbage, when away they fly, chased perhaps by several others anxious to rob them of the prize. Noon has arrived. High above the masthead of our largest man-of-war the kittiwakes float gracefully in wide circles until all, as if fatigued, sail downward again with common accord toward the transparent deep, and, alighting close to each other, seem to ride safely at anchor. There they now occupy themselves in cleaning and arranging their beautiful plumage. It flies more swiftly than the larger gulls and with more rapid wing beats., It can be readily recognized by the flight, even at a long distance, by one who is familiar with it. Dr. Charles W. Townsend writes to me: Although the flight of the kittiwake is characteristically graceful, rapid, and Swallow like, with quick wing strokes, I have seen them get up from the sur- face of the water just in time to clear the bow of the advancing steamer and fly off with slow and heavy wing beats, as if loath to leave a good fishing ground. In the adult the black wing tips are short and cut squarely across, as if the wings were dipped in black. In the immature plumage it most dosely resembles the young Bonaparte’s gull, but the black nuchal crescent and the black wing coverts are conspicuous, and there is more black on the primaries, in which the color pattern is also different. The ordinary cry of the kittiwake suggests its name, which it seems to pronounce quite distinctly. This is the soft and mellow note LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 41 most often heard about its breeding grounds, but when much excited or alarmed, it indulges in loud, shrill, piercing screams, as it darts down upon the intruder. When hovering in large flocks over a school of fish or other tempting feast it becomes very noisy, uttering loud, harsh cries, somewhat resembling the notes of the gull-billed ‘tern. Doctor Townsend adds the following notes: Besides the cry, which recalls its name Kit-tiwake, I have noted down the syllables Ka-ake; sharp and piercing Ki, Ki, Ki; rapidly repeated and harsh rattling Kaa, Kaa, Kae, Kae, and Kaak Kaak. The gentle kittiwake is a highly gregarious and sociable species. Among the various sea birds, with which it is intimately associated on its breeding grounds, it is a harmless and a friendly neighbor. It does not seem to molest the eggs or young of the other species at all and it has no enemies among them. At other seasons it is often persecuted by the jaegers, the relentless pursuers of all the smaller gulls. and terns, the highway robbers of the northern seas. The worst enemy of the kittiwake is man. In winter, when these gulls are abundant on the New England coast, they are shot in large numbers. They are tame and unsuspicious, gathering, like terns, in large flocks over a fallen companion, making it easy for the gunner to kill as many as he chooses. They may easily be attracted about the fisherman’s boat by throwing overboard cod livers or other refuse, where they are easily shot and may often be caught on a baited hook. Their bodies are used for food or for bait and their plumage is, or was, sold for millinery purposes; but often they are killed in purely wanton sport. Macgillivray (1852) says of the way these birds have been killed on the British coast: Parties are formed on our eastern coast for the sole purpose of shooting them ; and I have seen a person station himself on the top of the kittiwake cliff of the Isle of May, and shoot incessantly for several hours, without so much as afterwards picking up a single individual of the many killed and maimed birds with which the smooth water was strewn beneath. Fall—tThe fall migration starts early; that is, the birds move away from their breeding grounds early and begin to work down the coast in August and September. Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1907) saw about 5,000 kittiwakes at the mouth of Hamilton Inlet, Labrador, on July 18, 1906. He describes their behavior as follows: At Hamilton Inlet thousands of kittiwakes covered the water, and as we steamed on they rose in bodies of 500 or more and whirled about like gusts of snow driven by the wind, their pure white plumage lit up by the rays of the setting sun. Silent for the most part, they occasionally emitted cries of kae kae, or ka-ake, and at times one could imagine the syllables of kittiwake. On our return trip we ran into a flock of nearly the same size near Cape Harrison. The appearance of a snowstorm here was more perfect, for there was a thick fog bank, on the edge of which the kittiwakes played. The sun shining on the birds before the fog shut them out was very striking. They were occa- 42 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. sionally plunging for capelins, at times disappearing entirely under water with a splash. One could often be seen flying with a fish hanging by one end from its bill. A jaeger suddenly appeared on the scene, and the twisting and turning of pursuer and pursued was interesting to see. The kittiwake finally dropped his prey, and the jaeger settled on the water to pick it up. On my way south along the Labrador coast on August 21, 1912, I saw large numbers of old and young kittiwakes near Makkovik and Ragged Islands, far south of their breeding grounds. Mr. Lucien M. Turner says of their habits on the Labrador coast: Scores and hundreds of the kittiwake gull were observed on_ the Labrador coast in the early part of July,.1882. They were most numerous in the Arctic current bearing icebergs, on which these birds at times assembled in thou- sands as the mass of ice towered at times over 200 feet high and presented an area of over half a mile square on the top of it. Here the birds sat com- pactly, slowly. moving to the southward; they probably congregated during these times after having gorged themselves with capelins and, lance, f fishes to allow the process of digestion to be completed. A. single rifle shot reverberating against the wall of ice or a ball projected: in the midst of thesé birds was sufficient to startle the entire community into flight, and upon which they would lazily circle round and round the vessel or sway back and forth across her wake, always at a provoking distance, until one would be dropped while on wing with a rifle.ball. The living birds wheeled over their dead companion in angry curiosity as they clamored their rattling cry. Winter—The kittiwake does not become common on the Massa- chusetts coast until about the middle of October, after which it is common off our coasts all winter, where it is known as the “ winter gull,” “frost gull,” or “pinny owl.” Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1905) says of its winter habits: The kittiwake is an offshore gull, one that is to be found especially about fishing vessels in winter, gleaning the waves for the refuse which is always to be found in the neighborhood of these boats. In my notes of a trip to Nova Scotia from Boston, in December, 1883, I have entered that they were very abundant everywhere off the coast. Off Rockport in winter, kittiwakes begin to be common 2 or 3 miles from land, and are generally abundant on the fishing grounds, 8 or 10 miles out. They may, however, be frequently seen from the shore, especially if the day be stormy and the shore an open one. They often visit the little harbor of Rockport with its ‘wealth of fish gurry. They also fly occasionally over the beaches, and under these circumstances I have had no difficulty in shooting them for specimens, as, unlike the herring gull, they do not hesitate to fly within gunshot. I have never seen them in the tidal estuaries. Mr. Walter H. Rich has sent me the following notes on the be- havior of the kittiwake or “winter bird,” as it is called, on Georges Banks: As might be guessed from the name, it is during the coldest weather that this bird is most abundant, and at this season, so the writer was informed, not infrequently they became so tame as to perch in rows upon the main booms of the vessels on frosty mornings, awaiting their breakfasts. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 43 The first arrivals (five birds) appeared on the morning of October 12, 1913. Every day following their arrival showed increasing numbers until in a fortnight there were always “hundreds,” and at times “thousands” would make but a moderate estimate of their flocks. My records for November 16 says, “ winter birds in millions ”—-perhaps an exaggeration, yet so it seemed. Scarcely a daylight hour after their arrival but was filled with their chatter- ing squeal; scarcely a moment but saw them wheeling about the steamers, appearing just before sun up and standing by to give any needed assistance as long as the sun held above the western rim of the ocean. The signal for hauling the net brought great activity among the flocks banked up on either side of the steamer’s path in 23-mile-long lines of white birds roosting upon the water. There were literally thousands of gulls that rose and drifted along over the swells, just keeping pace with the steamer’s slow progress. Other gulls there were, both brown plumaged and full plumaged—ring-bill, herring gull, black-backed, and a few of the large white or pearly gulls, of species undetermined where they wheeled in a safe offing. But all these were at a disadvantage, both numerically and otherwise, with the kittiwakes, who stole from them and beat them to every piece of liver and waste thrown overside. If the prize sinks the big gull has lost it; not so the little “ winter bird,” who dives swiftly and gracefully from the wing and brings it up. This is the only gull which the writer has ever seen to dive. Naturally their success makes them unpopular with the losers, who pursue and harry the kittiwake, but to little effect, since the small gull is too active to suffer much in these attempts at reprisal. In fair weather during midday the gulls of all species soar far aloft to wheel in wide circles and drift in the sunshine of the upper air. The “winter bird” indulges in this also, but to a somewhat lesser extent than do the gulls of other species. The greater part of the kittiwake flocks prefer to bank up along the steamer’s course, so as to be at hand at the haul, utilizing the interval to preen their feathers and bathe and dip like sparows in a puddle. In fact, it was a considerable time before I could be sure that the kittiwake joined in these lofty aerial maneuvers; yet they surely did, sweeping on motionless wings. in great spirals at a height where the eye could hardly follow them or distinguish them, but never failing to drop with all swiftness when warned by the whistle that the feast was about to be spread for them. What an enormous amount of food must be needed to support all this great ‘sea-bird population—the hags and petrels in the summer months, the gulls in the colder weather, the full round of the year. DISTRIBUTION. Breeding range.—Northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere; in North America east to Greenland and the Labrador coast. South to the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Newfoundland, Bird Rock, Bonaventure Island, and Anticosti) and probably parts of Hudson Bay. The western limit of its range, where the subspecies pollécaris takes its place, is unknown, but it has been stated to occur west to Franklin Bay. North to Prince Albert Land (near Princess Royal Islands) ; the south shore of North Somerset; north of Wellington Channel (latitude 77°), and northern Greenland (Thank God Harbor on the northwestern coast, and between latitude 80° and 81° on the north- eastern coast). In the Old World breeds from Iceland, Great Brit- 44 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. ain (Shetland and Orkney Islands, Hebrides, coast of Ireland and England, except southern parts) ; Spitzbergen, probably Franz Josef Land, Nova Zembla and coast of western Siberia (said by Koren to range east to Chaun Bay, northern Siberia. South to northwestern France. Breeding grounds protected in the Canadian reservations on Bird Rock, Bonaventure Island, and Percé Rock. Winter range.—Offshore from Gulf of St. Lawrence (Prince Ed- ward Island), Nova Scotia (Halifax), New Brunswick (Grand Manan), and coast of Maine; occasionally on the Great Lakes; south to New J or and the Bermudas, and even farther south | (latitude 25° 57’ N., east of Miami). In Europe winters from the coasts of Great Britain south to the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas, the Canary. Islands, and Azores. - Spring. graben: —Return from ocean wandering to its breeding grounds. Karly dates of arrival: Prince Edward Island, March 15 (average March 26) ; Quebec, Godbout, March 25 (average April 6) ; Greenland, Ivigtuk, March 26; Dover Strait, May 20; and Cape York, June 10., Late dates of departure: Bermuda, April 4; New York, Orleans County, April 10; Connecticut, New Haven, April 18. Fall migration.—Ofishore and southward. ‘Early dates of arrival: Massachusetts, October 2 (average November 6) ; Long Island, Octo- ber 18; Pennsylvania, Erie, October 17. Late dates of depanturee Northeastern Greenland, latitude 75° 20’, August 1; Ellesmere Land, Lincoln Bay, September 1; Wellington Channel, September 2; Fro- bischer Bay, September 2; Cumberland Gulf, September 19; "New- foundland, October 17. Casual , records: —Wanders occasionally to various points in the interior; to the Great Lakes frequently, as far west as Michigan (Neebish Island, fall 1893-94) and Wisconsin (Racine, March 17, 1884) ; up the Mackenzie Valley (Fort Resolution, May 23, 1860): west in the interior to Wyoming (Douglas, November 18, 1898). Egg dates—Great Britain: Thirty-one records, April 6 to June 27; sixteen records, June 4 to 12. Newfoundland: Ten records, May 30 to July 1; five records, June 14 to 20. Gulf of St. Lawrence: Ten records, June 10 to 26; five records, June 18 to 25. RISSA TRIDACTYLA POLLICARIS Ridgway. PACIFIC KITTIWAKE. HABITS. The Pacific form of the well-known kittiwake differs from its eastern relative in having a larger hind toe and more extensive black tips on the primaries, but its habits are practically the same and its life history is similar. The two subspecies together occupy a wide LIFE HISTORIES OF RICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 45 range throughout the northern part of the northern hemisphere, giving the species a circumpolar distribution. Spring.—The spring migration is early, reaching Bering Island, in the Commander group, according to Stejneger (1885), about the ist of April. In Bering Sea the migration is delayed until the breaking up of the ice. Nelson (1887) says: At St. Michaels each year they arrive from the 10th to the 18th of May, and were first seen searching for food in the narrow water channels in the tide eracks along shore. As the open spaces appeared they congregated there until in early June, when the ice broke up and moved offshore. At this time the kittiwakes sought the rugged cliffs along the shore of the mainland or the precipitous islands dotting Bering Sea and the adjoining Arctic. Courtship.—Very little seems to be known about the courtship or mating performances of this bird, but Mr. H. W. Elliott (1875) says that “the male treads the female on the nest, and nowhere else, making a loud shrill, screaming sound during the ceremony.” Nesting.—We saw plenty of kittiwakes near the eastern end of the Aleutian Islands, where they were probably breeding in the vicinity of Akutan Island. West of Unalaska we saw very few birds and no signs of breeding colonies. Doctor Stejneger (1885) found them breeding in “astonishing numbers” at certain places in the Commander Islands, at the western end of the chain, where they choose “steep walls, rising perpendicularly out of the deep sea, and especially high pinnacles standing lonely amidst the foaming breakers, provided they are fitted out with shelves and projections upon which to place the nests.” Dr. W. H. Dall (1873) gives us the following good account of a breeding colony in the Shumagin Islands, south of the Alaska Peninsula: On entering Coal Harbor, Unga, we were at once struck with the peculiar white line which wound around the precipitous cliffs of Round Island, and was seen to’ be caused by the presence of birds; and as soon as an opportunity was afforded I took a boat and went to the locality to examine it. The nests, in their position, were unlike anything I had ever seen before. At first it ap- peared as if they were fastened to the perpendicular face of the rock, but on a close examination it appeared that two parallel strata of the metamorphic sandstone of the cliffs, being harder than the rest, had weathered out, stand- ing out from the face of the cliff from 1 to 4 inches, more or less irregularly. The nests were built where these broken ledges afforded a partial support, though extending over more than half their width. The lines of nests exactly followed the winding projections of these ledges, everywhere giving a very sin- gular appearance to the cliff, especially when the white birds were sitting on them. The nests were built with dry grass, agglutinated together and to the rock in some unexplained manner; perhaps by a mucus secreted by the bird for the purpose. The nests had a very shallow depression at the top in which lay two eggs. The whole establishment had an intolerable odor of guano, and the nests were very filthy. The birds hardly moved ,at our approach; only those within a few yards leaving their posts. I reached up and took down two nests, one containing two young birds, and the other empty. Wind coming up, 46 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. We were obliged to pull away, and the bird, which came back, lighted on the rock where her nest and young had been with evident astonishment at the mysterious disappearance. After flying about a little she again settled on the spet, and, suddenly making up her mind that foul play on the part of some other bird had taken place, she commenced a furious assault on her nearest neighbor. As we pulled away tke little fellows began to be effected by the motion of the boat, and with the most ludicrous expression of nausea, imitat- ing as closely as a bird could do the motions and expression of a seasick person, they very soon deposited their dinner on the edge of the nest. It was composed of small fishes or minnows, too much disorganized to be identified. Eggs, in a moderately fresh condition, were obtained about the same time, but most of them were far advanced toward hatching. In Bering Sea we found this to be one of the commonest. gulls and found it breeding on all of the islands where it could find high, rocky cliffs. On Walrus Island, where there are no high cliffs, we had an unusually good opportunity to examine the nests. Among the hosts of sea birds which made their summer home on this won- derful island a few little parties, of from four to six pairs each, of Pacific kittiwakes found a scanty foothold on the vertical faces of the low, rocky cliffs. Here their nests were skillfully placed on the narrow ledges or on little protuberances which seemed hardly wide enough to hold them, and often they were within a few feet of nesting California murres or red-faced cormorants, with which the island was overcrowded. The nests were well annie of soft green grass and bits of sod securely plastered onto the rocks and probably were repaired and used again year after year. They were well rounded, deeply cupped on top, and lined with fine dry grass. Most of the nests, on July 7, contained two eggs, some only one, but none of them held young. The incubating birds. and their mates standing near their nests were very gentle and tame. We had no difficulty, in getting near enough to. photograph them. Eggs—The eggs of the Pacific kittiwakes are practically indis- tinguishable from those of the Atlantic kittiwake, though they. will average, a trifle larger and a trifle more pointed. The ground color seems to run more to the Hanis Shades, from “tilleul buff” or “ olive buff” to “cartridge buff” “pale. olive buff.” Many sets show very pale shades of “ pas green.” or even greenish or bluish white.. The markings are about the same as in the Atlantic bird, but average lighter with a larger proportion of the drab or gray spots. The measurements of 40 eggs in the United States National Museum and the writer’s collections average 58.4 by 41.3 milli- meters, the eggs showing the four extreme measure 63 by 43.5, 55.5 by 41.5 and 58.5 by 37.5 millimeters. Young—The young remain in the nests and are fed by their parents until they are able to fly. Both old and young birds spend much of their time on their breeding grounds and frequent their old U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN II13 PL. 9 Walrus Island, Alaska. A. C. Bent PACIFIC KITTIWAKE. FOR DESCRIPTION SEE PAGE 320 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 47 nests until ready to migrate in September. The description of the downy young and the sequences of molts and plumages, already given for the Atlantic kittiwake, will do equally well for the Pacific subspecies. I can find no essential points of difference. Food.—Nelson (1887) says of their feeding habits: From the end of August they frequent the inner bays and mouths of small streams, and are often seen in large parties feeding upon the myriads of stickle backs which are found along the coast at this season. They pursue their prey in the same graceful manner as the terns, by hovering over the water and plunging down head foremost. In the bay at St. Michaels they were frequently seen following a school of white whales, evidently to secure such fragments of fish or other food as the whales dropped in the water. It was curious to note how well the birds timed the whale and anticipated their appearance as the latter came up to blow. Along the beach at Nome we saw kittiwakes almost constantly where they seemed to be picking up bits of garbage. Mr. A. W. An- thony (1906) saw them in winter at Puget Sound, associated with other gulls about the garbage heaps. Behavior.—Dr. E. W. Nelson (1883) pays the following tribute to the flight powers of this kittiwake: During our cruising in the summer of 1881 I had repeated occasions to notice the graceful motions and powers of flight possessed by this handsome gull. Its buoyancy during the worst gales we met was fully equal to that possessed by the Rodger’s fulmar, with which it frequently associated at these times. These birds were continually gliding back and forth in graceful curves, now passing directly into the face of the gale, then darting off to one side on a long circuit, always moving steadily, with only an oceasional stroke of the wings for long ss if there was a strong wind. ° r. William Palmer (1890) also shows his admiration of it in the following words: Viewed from the clifts the flight of these birds is remarkably “gracefal, and especially so when they have been disturbed from a midday siesta. I thus disturbed several dozen one day and carefully watched them as they passed and repassed the spot where I sat on the edge of the cliff. They were all within 20 yards and continually paraded parallel with the cliff, all the while intently watching me. They would pass by for some 80 to 40 yards, then turn and fiy an equal distance on the other side before again making a turn. Usually the whole distance was accomplished by sailing, and often the turns and several lengths were traveled in the same way. Thus, selecting an indi- vidual and keeping my eyes on him I often counted from two to three trips without a flap of the wing. One individual thus noted made the trip seven times without once changing ‘his wings from their rigid outstretched. position. The length of his parade was fully 50 yards and he sailed in an almost straight line, and rarely varied his level, being about as high above the sea as I was on the cliff. Not a movement of the air was perceptible to my senses. He was ‘often so close that as he passed I could distinctly see the movement of his eye as he slightly turned his head to view me. Several times the fly lines of two birds: would cross at about the same level, but rarely would one flap to gain impetus enough to get rapidly out of the way. It was more often 48 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL ‘MUSEUM. accomplished by a quiver of the wings on the part of one of the two, a slight rise as the other passed beneath, and then a similar descent, and the con- tinuation of the journey without any distinct flapping whatever. They thus sailed in plain view, as long as I remained on the rocks, probably 30 minutes, Winter.—These hardy birds of Arctic seas seem quite at home among the drifting ice and snowstorms, and it is not until their sum- mer feeding grounds become permanently closed with winter ice, in October, 1 that they are forced southward to spend the winter months in the Aleutian Islands, along the Alaska coast, and south to Puget Sound, or even California. Here they associate freely with the other common gulls on the coast or spend their time offshore. They are so much more pelagic in their habits than other gulls that they seem much less abundant than they really are. DISTRIBUTION. . Breeding range.—Coasts and islands of the North Pacific, Bering Sea, and the adjacent Arctic Ocean. East to Cape Lisburne and other suitable parts of the western Alaskan coast. South to Seldovia, Alaska, the Shumagin, Aleutian, Commander, and Kurile Islands. West along the coast of Kamchatka and northeastern Siberia to the Koliutschin Islands. Occurs in summer, but has not been found breeding on the coast of southern Alaska (Yakutat and Sitka) at Point Barrow and on the Siberian coast from Koliutschin Islands to Chaun Bay. Breeding grounds protected i in the following national reservations in Alaska: Aleutian Islands (as Kiska, Near Islands, Unga, Unimak Pass), Pribilofs, St. George Island. Winter range-—From southeastern Alaska (Sitka) and perhaps from the Aleutians, south along the coast of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and, California to northern Lower California (San Geronimo Island). On the Asiatic side south to the Kurile Islands and Japan (Yezo and Tokyo). Spring migration—A return from ocean wandering to its breed- ing grounds. Early dates of arrival: Commander Islands, Bering Island, April 1; Pribilof Islands, St. Paul, April 20; Alaska, St. Michael, May 6, and Point Barrow, June 2. Late dates of departure: Lower California, San Geronimo Island, March 17; California, Point Pinos, April 25; ; Washington, | Port Townsénd, May 19; British Columbia, May 24. Fall migration Mainly eastward and southward off the coasts, beginning in July and reaching British Columbia in September. Average date of arrival at Point Pinos is November 14, earliest November 5. Late dates of departure: Alaska, Point. Barrow, August 31, and St. Michael about October 15; Pribilof Islands, St. Paul, Getobar 12; Siberia, Koliutschin Island, September 29. U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 113 PL. 10 St. George Island, Alaska. C. H. Townsend. RED-LEGGED KITTIWAKE,. FOR DESCRIPTION SEE PAGE 330. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 49 gg dates.—Pribilof Islands: Thirteen records, June 10 to July 7; seven records, June 25 to July 38. Northern Bering Sea: Nine rec- ords, June 10 to July 20; five records, June 20 to July 6. RISSA BREVIROSTRIS (Bruch). RED-LEGGED KITTIWAKE, HABITS. This is one of the species which I expected to find breeding abundantly among the Aleutian Islands, but I was disappointed to find that it was far from common about any of the islands that were visited. As we passed Akutan Island on the way to Unalaska I saw a large number of kittiwakes hovering about the rocky cliffs at a distance. I supposed that they were of this species, which is recorded as breeding on this island, but I was unable to stop and did not go near enough to identify | them. I saw several about the Pribilof Islands, but only one specimen was taken. I did not find it on Walrus Island, where it is said to breed. Nesting. —Mr. Henry W. Elliott (1880), to whom we are indebted for practically all that we know about the habits of the red-legged kittiwake, says that it arrives on the fur-seal islands, for the purpose of breeding, about the 9th of May and of its nesting habits he writes: It is much more prudent and cautious than the auks and the murres, for its nests are always placed on nearly inaccessible shelves and points of mural walls, so that seldom can one be reached unless a person is lowered down to it by a rope passed over the cliff. Nest building is commenced early in May, and eompleted, generally, not much before the 1st of July. It uses dry grass and moss cemented with mud, which it gathers at the fresh-water pools and ponds scattered over the islands. The nest is solidly and neatly put up; the parents work together in its construction most diligenty and amiably. Two eggs are the usual number, although occasionally three will be found in the nest. If these eggs are removed, the female will renew them like the “ arrie ” in the course of another week or 10 days. Dr. L. Stejneger (1885) found the red-legged kittiwake breed- ing abundantly in the Commander Islands, and says: Like its black-legged cousin, it only selects steep and inaccessible rocks, and in none of its habits at the breeding place could I detect any marked differ- ence. They also arrive at the islands about the same time, hatching their young simultaneously with the other species. The two species usually keep apart from each other. In the great rookery at Kikij Mys only one solitary red-legged bird was seen among the thousands and thousands of black feet, while a still greater colony at Gavaruschkaja Buchta consisted of red legs exclusively. On Copper Island, however, I found the two species breeding to- gether on the same rocky wall—the black feet always higher up than the pres- ent ‘species. The'two kinds were easily distinguished when sitting on the nests, brevirostris having the gray of the mantle of a perceptibly darker shade than pollicaris. 50 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. . £:ggs.—The set usually consists of two eggs, rarely three, and often aaly one. The eggs are usually about ovate in shape, and in a gen- eral way resemble those of the common kittiwake, though they aver- age lighter in color and are somewhat less heavily spotted. The ground color is bluish white, buffy white, creamy white, or even pure white. The markings consist of spots, blotches, or scrawls scat- tered irregularly over the egg or occasionally concentrated in a mass at the larger end or in a ring around it. These markings are in various shades of drab, lavender, or lilac, overlaid with various shades of brown, mostly the lighter shades, but sometimes as dark as “bister” or “sepia.” The measurements of 43 eggs, in various collections, average 55.8 by 40.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 66.5 by 45 and 50 by 37 millimeters. © Young.—Mr. Elliott (1880) says: Both parents assist in the labor of incubation, which lasts a trifle longer than the usual’ time—from 24 to 26 days. The chick comes out with a pure white downy coat, a pale whitish-gray bill and feet, and rests helplessly in the nest until its feathers grow. During this period it is a comical-looking object. The natives capture them now and then to make pets of, always having a number every year scattered through the village, usually tied by one leg to a stake at the doors of their houses, where they become very tame: and it is. not until fall, when cold weather sets in, that they become restless and willingly leave their captivity. for the freedom of the air. : Plumages.—The downy young are not distinguishable from those of the Pacific kittiwake, being covered with white down without spots. So far as I have been able to learn from the available mate- rial the molts and plumages are similar to those of the common species. There is no juvenal plumage, the young bird going directly from the downy stage into the first winter plumage; in this plumage the young bird has a well-marked, dark, cervical collar, considerable dusky about the eyes, and a mianitle variegated with grayish-white tips; but it has no black on the wing coverts, secondaries, or tail, as in the common kittiwake. These dark markings. are usually wholly or partially lost during the first spring, but they are sometimes re- tained through the summer by failure to molt in the spring or by a partial renewal of feathers in sympathy with the first winter plum- age. At the first postnuptial molt (in August) the adult. winter plumage is assumed. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in August and ap- parently a partial prenuptial molt early in the spring. Winter adults have the cervix and the auriculars washed with plumbeous. In the adult nuptial plumage this is one of the most beautiful birds. in Bering Sea, where we learned to recognize it by the short, yellow bill, bright red feet, dark mantle, and wings. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 51 Behavior.—I can not find any data on the food of the red-legged kittiwake, but probably it does not vary materially from that of closely related species. Mr. William Palmer (1899) writes, concern- ing his impression of this species on the Pribilof Islands: To my mind this is the most beautiful species on the islands. Always grace- ful, whether on the cliffs or flying, its beautiful form and delicate snow-white plumage, with its vermilion feet, adds much to the avifaunal wonders of these islands. Unlike its cousin, which carries its feet extended when flying, this species nearly always buries them in the feathers of its under body, as if fearful of showing their beauty except when absolutely necessary. When fog envelops these islands, both the land and sea, the sea birds away from home find their way by flying along the edges of the bluffs, where the stored heat in the rocks dissipates the rapidly drifting fog. The wily, aleut, knowing these character- istics, ensconces himself behind a rock in a suitable location and with a large dip net intercepts the birds on their way along the bluffs. Thus many a meal is obtained, and, unfortunately, our pretty red-legged kittiwake too often falls a victim, Winter—When the young birds are fully fledged and able to fly, both old and young birds desert their breeding places on the rocky cliffs, but do not migrate far away. They are resident throughout the year in the vicinity of the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands, and probably spend most of their time at sea during the winter months. DISTRIBUTION. Breeding range.—I\slands of Bering Sea (the Pribilof, Near, and Commander Islands) are the only places where this species has been found breeding. It is supposed also to nest at various places in the Aleutians from Akutan Island westward. Breeding grounds protected in the following national reservations in Alaska: Aleutian Islands, as Near Islands, Round Island, Unimak Pass, and Pribilof Islands. Winter range.—Unknown. Probably the open sea not far from its breeding grounds. It has been stated not to winter on the Near and Commander Islands. Elliott says it occurs about the Pribilofs = all seasons. “ Spring oc diaadia —Apparently comes to the breeding grounds about May 9. Fall migration.—Birds leave the Pribilofs as soon as the young can fly, usually early in October, latest November 11. Has been seen near Unalaska Island, October 5. Casual records.—Taken at Forty Mile, Yukon Territory, October 15, 1889; St. Michael, Alaska, September 18, 1876; Kamchatka (spec- imen, but no date) ; and Wrangel Island (specimen, but no date). Egg dates. —Pribilof Islands: Three’ records, July 1, 3, and 10. Kamchatka: Two records, June 12 and 22. 52 BULLETIN 118, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. LARUS HYPERBOREUS Gunnerus. GLAUCOUS GULL. HABITS. The name burgomaster is a fitting name for this chief magistrate of the feathered tribes of the Arctic seas, where it reigns supreme over all the lesser water fowl, levying its toll of food from their eggs and defenseless young. Well they know its strength and dread its power, as it sails majestically aloft over the somber, rocky cliffs of the Greenland coast, where, with myriads of sea fowl, it makes its summer home; and isles is it for them to resist the onslaught of its heavy beak when it swoops down to rob them of their callow young. Only. the great skua, the fighting airship of the north, dares to give it battle and to drive the tyrant burgomaster from its chosen crag. Its only rival in size and power among the gulls is the great, black-backed gull, and where these two meet. on the Labrador coast they treat each other with dignified respect. Spring—The glaucous gull is more oceanic in its habits than other large gulls. Though it resorts somewhat to inland lakes and rivers during migrations and in winter, it seems to prefer the cold, bleak, and rugged coasts of northern Labrador, Greenland, and the Arctic islands, whither it resorts in the spring as early as the rigors of the Arctic winter will allow. What few birds winter in southern Hud- son Bay and the region of the Great Lakes, migrate across Ungava and through Hudson Straits to the Atlantic coast; but the-main migration route is northward along the seacoast following the open leads in the ice with the first muereson of the eiders. Kumlien (1879) says: This gull is the first bird to erive (at Cumberland Sound) in the spring. In 1878 they made their appearance in the Kingwah Fjord by the 20th of April. It was still about 70 miles to the floe edge and open water; still, they seemed to fare well on the young seals. At Ivigtut; Greenland, according to Hagerup (1891), “some, chiefly young birds, remain over winter. An old bird, in complete summer dress, was shot on the 20th of March.” In Alaska, also, this species is the earliest migrant to arrive. Turner (1886) observes that they arrive at St. Michael by the middle of April, “sailing high in the air, almost out of sight. Their note, being the first inti- mation of their presence, is always gladly welcomed as a sign that the ice, farther south, is breaking up.” Nelson (1887) says: They wander restlessly along the coast until the ponds open on the marshes near the sea, and then, about the last half of May, they are found straying singly or in pairs about the marshy ponds, where they seek their summer homes. Here they are among the noisiest of the wild: fowl. U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN !13 PL. II ee Borup Glenn, Greenland. D. B. MacMillan. Sutherland Island, Greenland. D. B. MacMillan. GtaAucous GULL. FOR DESCRIPTION SEE ERE 330. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 538 Grinnell (1900) noted their arrival in Kotzebue Sound May 11, 1899, when he “ discovered 10 sitting close together out in the middle of the river ice.” Winter was still unbroken at this date, and there was no open water in the vicinity “so far as he knew.” Nesting.—The southernmost breeding grounds of this species. are in Newfoundland. Here in the summer of 1912 I saw them at sev- eral places, where they were probably nesting on the high and inaccessible rocky cliffs of the west coast. Other observers have also reported them from this region. Mr. J. R. Whitaker, of Grand Lake, told me that he had'taken the eggs of this species on an island in Sandy Lake. While investigating a breeding colony of great black- backed gulls on an island in Sandy Lake, on June 23, 1912, I saw a pair of glaucous gulls flying overhead. The young of all the gulls had hatched at that-date and were hidden among the rocks and under- brush, so I did not succeed in identifying any young of the glaucous gull, but I have no reason to doubt that the pair had nested there, perhaps on one of the small rocky islets by themselves. Mr. Edward Arnold (1912) reports that “several pairs had their nests built out on large bowlders in the center of ponds, but as the water was very cold and over our heads in depth we could not examine them.” On the Labrador coast in 1912 I found the glaucous gull common all along the coast from the Straits of Belle Isle northward. I saw a large breeding colony on the lofty cliffs of the Kigla-pait range between Nain and Okak. The nests were quite inaccessible on the narrow ledges of precipitous cliffs facing the sea. On August 2 we visited a breeding colony of 30 or 40 pairs of glaucous gulls on a rocky islet near Nain. It was a precipitous crag, rising abruptly from the sea to a height of 100 or 150 feet, unapproachable in rough weather, and an invulnerable castle except at one point, where we could land on a rock and climb up a steep grassy slope. Numerous black guillemots flew out from the lower crevices, and my companion, Mr. Donald B. MacMillan, succeeded in finding a few of their eggs still fairly fresh. Rev. Walter W. Perrett, of Nain, had taken a set of duck hawk’s eggs from the cliffs earlier in the season. The upper part of the rock was occupied by the gulls, where their nests were mostly on inaccessible ledges. Near the top of the rock, which was flat and covered with grass, we found quite a number of nests that we could reach, but all of these were empty. Below us we could see nests containing young of various ages and one nest still held two eggs. Some of the young were nearly ready to fly and probably some had already flown. The nests were made of soft grasses and mosses, and were not very elaborate or very bulky for such large gulls; probably they had been somewhat trampled down by the young. 54 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. Kumlien (1879) found the glaucous gull breeding abundantly in the Cumberland Sound region. He describes one nesting site as “ an enormous cliff about 14 miles in length and over 2,000 feet in height, and nearly perpendicular. This cliff is about 4 miles from the sea- shore to the east-northeast of America Harbor. Many hundreds of nests are scattered about on the little projecting shelves of rock, and the birds sitting on them look like little bunches of snow still unmelted on the cliff. The ascent to this locality is very laborious; but the’ marvelous beauty of the place will well repay any future explorer to visit it, for the plants that grow in such rich- profusion at the base of the cliff, if nothing more.” He also says: I have examined some nests that were built on the duck islands, always on the highest eminence: ‘The structure seemed to have been used and added to for many years in succession, probably by the same pair. In shape they were pyramid-formed mounds, over 4 feet at the base and about 1 foot at-the top, and nearly 24 feet in height.. .They. were composed of every conceivable object found in the vicinity, grass, seaweed, moss, lichens, anor, bones, skin, egg shells, ete. Regarding t the ‘breeding habits of this species in Greenland, Mr. J. D. Figgins writes me that on Saunders Island: The nest is composed of moss and grass, often of considerable height because of the yearly repair, always near the top of the cliffs and never approachable from below. The nests are rarely placed other than near rookeries of murres and other gulls, where the glaucous gulls prey upon the eggs and young. When the gulls make forays upon the murre and kittiwake rookeries, the latter birds make no defense whatever and, besides uttering their usual querulous com- plaints, offer no resistance, seemingly knowing that it is quite useless. The glaucous gulls prefer small young, which their advanced young gulp whole. Young in various stages of growth, from newly hatched to those ready to leave the nests, were found abundantly on August 15. No eggs were seen at that time. Both adults were invariably nearby, screaming protest when the nest was approached and following the intruder for considerable distance when leaving. On the Arctic coast of Mackenzie, Macfarlane (1908) found some 20 nests of this species on sandy islets in the bays and rivers: The nest was usually a shallow depression in the beach, while in one of diem we discovered an egg of the black brant which was being incubated by a bird of this species. Nelson (1887) describes two nests found by him on the Yukon delta, as follows: On June 4 their first nest was found. It was placed on a small islet, a few feet across, in the center of a broad shallow pond. The structure was formed of a mass of moss and grass piled up a foot or more high, with a base 3 feet across and with a deep central depression lined with dry grass. There was a single egg. The female, as she sat on the nest, was visible a mile away, and not the slightest opportunity was afforded for concealment on the broad sur- rounding flat. . LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 55 - On June 15, near St. Michaels, another nest was found, an equally conspicuous structure. Like the majority of their. nests found by me, it also was located ona smallislet ina pond. It was 2 feet high, with a base from 3 to 4 feet long by 2 wide and measured about 18 inches across the top. In the apex was a de- pression about 5 inches deep and 9 inches in diameter. This bulky structure was made up of tufts of moss and grass rooted up by the birds’ beaks. The ground looked as though it had been rooted up by pigs in places near the nest and on the outer edge of the pond; and while I was examining the nest, which contained three eggs, one of the old birds came flying up from a considerable distance, carrying a large tuft of muddy grass in its beak and dropped it close by on seeing me. One of the eggs taken was white, without a trace of the usual color marks. While I was securing the eggs the parents swooped down close to my head, uttering harsh cries. On July 7, 1911, I visited Walrus Island, in the Pribilof group in Bering ‘Sea, where among all the hordes of water fowl that breed in this wonderful islet was a nesting colony of glaucous-winged and glaucous gulls. Their nests were scattered among the tufts of short, coarse grass, which covered the highest and central part of the island, where soil had been formed by the accumulation of guano. The nests were rather bulky and well made of seaweed and soft grasses; a few of them still contained eggs, but nearly all of the young had hatched and were hiding in the grass and among the rocks. We were not allowed to shoot any birds here and the gulls were too shy to enable us to identify any nests, but I am positive that both species were breeding here. The glaucous-winged gull seems to have been overlooked by some of the others who have visited this island, though it may not have been breeding there then. Eggs.—As with most gulls, only one brood is raised in a season and the set usually consists of three eggs, though two eggs frequently complete the set. The eggs are similar to those of other large gulls, varying in shape from ovate to elongate ovate. The shell is rather coarsely granulated and without luster. The ground color shows the usual variations from “buffy brown” to “deep olive buff” or “pale olive buff.” The eggs are usually not very thickly and more or less irregularly spotted with small spots or blotches of various shades of the darker browns, such as “bone brown,” “bister,” or ‘ Saccardo’s umber”; also sometimes with lighter browns and often with underlying spots of various shades of the lighter drabs and lavender grays. The measurements of 56 eggs in the United States National Museum average 75.8 by 52.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 85.5 by 50.5, 78 by 57, 70 by 52.5 and 76.5 by 48 millimeters. Young.—Both Turner (1886) and Elliott (1875) give the period of incubation as about three weeks, but probably four weeks would be more nearly correct ; Evans (1891) gives it as 28 days. Probably both sexes incubate, for the pairs keep together at this time, and the male 174785—21—5 : 56 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. usually stands guard near the nest while the female is incubating. The young leave the nest after a few days and become quite lively; they are expert at hiding under whatever shelter they can find, often lying flat in some slight hollow with the eyes tightly closed. Kumlien (1879) says that he “had an opportunity. of seeing how these young hopefuls are instructed in egg sucking. The parent carried a duck’s egg to the nest and broke a hole in it, and the young one just helped himself at his leisure. After the young are full-fledged these birds are eminently gregarious, and are often seen feeding in considerable flocks.” The young are voracious feeders and become very fat, when they are much esteemed by the natives for food. Plumages.—The young chick is covered with long, soft, thick down, grayish white above and almost pure white below, tinged with buff on the throat and breast. . The back is clouded or blotched with “smoke gray,” and the head and throat are distinctly marked with numerous large and small spots of “ fuscous black,” the number and extent of the markings varying in different specimens. Before the young bird is half grown the juvenal plumage begins to appear, about the last of July, showing first on the wings, scapulars, flanks, and back: Doctor Dwight (1906) has given us a full and accurate account of the molts and plumages of this species. Of the juvenal plumage he says: August or early September finds birds wholly in the brown barred or mottled plumage, of which the flight feathers and the tai] are retained for a full year, the body plumage and some of the lesser wing coverts being partially renewed at two periods of moult, the post juvenal in November or later and the prenuptial beginning often as early as the end of February. The first winter plumage. only partially supplants the juvenal, “chiefly on the back. The overlapping of the post- juvenal and pre- nuptial moults obscures the question of whether all young birds pass through one or two moults during their first winter, but the evidence is in favor of two. Before the time of the prenuptial arrives birds have faded out a good deal and are often quite white in appearance, with the brown mottling very obscure.. The paler of the drab pri- maries apparently, fade to white in some cases.”