I , ^.V-- -
R O S S ' S G U L L.
Ross's r o s y G U L L . C U N K A T E - T A I L E D G U L L . W B D G B - T A I L K D G U L L .
Larus Rossa, Ri c h a r d s o n . N u t t a l l . Au d u b o n.
" " Ma c g i l l i v r a y . Y a r r e l l . Wi l s o n.
Larus rostus, JAKDINE. Sb L B T.
Rhodosietkia R<>ssi/\ Ma c g i l l i v r a y.
Lams— ? Rossii—Of Ro.ss.
THIS species is named after Commander BOBS, R.N., by whom the
first specimen was obtained. Two were shot on the coast of Melville
Island, during Sir Edward Parry's second expedition. Several were
seen north of Spitsbergen, and the species was also noticed by Lieutenant
Forster, R.N., in Waygait Straits.
A specimen of this beautiful Gull was shot in Yorkshire, by Lord
Huwden's gamekeeper, in February, 1847, at MUford-cum-Kirhy, near
Tadcaster, in the West-Hiding. Another is reported in the ' Zoologist,'
page 3388, on the authority of Mr. .1. It. Ellman, to have been obtained
at Pevcnscy, in Sussex, in the beginning of 1852.
Length, about one foot two inches; the male in winter has the bill
black, the inside of the mouth reddish orange; the edges of the eyelids
reddish orange; near and around the eve arc small black feathers; head
and crown, white; the neck has a collar round it of pitch black, it is
otherwise white, as well as the nape, chin, throat, and breast, the latter
with some grey and a deep tinge of ' r i c h and rare' peach-blossom-red,
or rose-colour—borrowed, as it were, in the hyperborean regions, the
native places of the bird, from the 'Aurora Borealis,' the 'Northern
Light,' which, as if to make up for the brief day, transplants the
gleam of the morning to guild the long night of the Arctic year-.
Back, clear grey.
The wings reach an inch beyond the end of the tail; underneath