Volume 8, 1955 - The Arctic Circle - Home

1VOL. VIn NO. 4THE ARCTIC CIRCULAR75entities". There have been several attempts made to classify formsas races of one or more species, but as data on distribution andoverlap have been lacking and good series of immature and adultbirds have not been collected, the arguments put forward havebeen inconclusive. Rand (1942, p. 126) has suggested that kumlieni j 'which breeds on the coasts of the southern part of Baffin Island, isa race of the Iceland Gull, Larus leucopterus Vieillot, which isconfined to subarctic Greenland as a breeding bird, and that thisspecies also includes Nelson's Gull, Larus nelsoni Henshaw, whichis a form of doubtful authenticity (Bailey, 1948, p. 242). Salomonsen(1950 -1, pp. 319-20) would like to include another gull in the Iceland­Kumlien l s species: Thayer's Gull, Larus thayeri Brooks l , which isthe common cliff-nesting gull of the Western Arctic coast, leavingthe Glaucous Gull with its race, the Point Barrow Gull of northernAlaska, and the Herring Gull as forms outside the complex. Bailey(1948, p. 240), however, has suggested that the Point Barrow Gullis a link between the Glaucous and the Iceland gull. If this is so,then only the Herring Gull remains outside the complex.Through the courtesy of the Foundation Company ofCanada, I was able to fly direct to Coral Harbour, SouthamptonIsland, where I arrived on April 24. On May 7, I reached CapeDorset by chartered Arctic Wings Norseman aircraft, and campednear the floe edge on the island until May 16. Between that dateand June 11, I searched the surrounding country for prospectivegull colonies, and did some general ornithological collecting. Thefirst Kumlien's Gull eggs were found on June 7 near Sangasuk,five miles southwest of the settlement, and, as this colony appearedsuitable for study, I moved out to it on June 11 by dog sled and boat,taking as assistant and companion a native, Pingnuatok. We remainedthere until July 6, observing the progress of laying andincubation. A few Glaucous and Herring gull nests were withinreach, and these were also under observation during the period.On the 6th we went in to Dorset settlement and, hearing that theC.D. Howe, the government supply vessel for the Eastern Arctic,was about to arrive, I deferred my return to the colony until July9. Part of this interval was spent examining a lake colony sixmiles northeast of Dorset. We remained at the Sangas~ colonyuntil July 22, when I returned to the settlement. The next ten daysI spent in making banding and collecting excursions in theneighbourhood.1. Rand (1942, p. 126) calls this gull a race of the Herring Gull.