Ivory Gull

Ivory Gull
Larus eburneus, Gmelin [now Pagophila eburnea]
Octavo edition, plate 445

“Having ascertained that this beautiful species visits the southern coast of Labrador and Newfoundland every winter, I have thought it probable that it occasionally extends its rambles as far as our eastern shores, and therefore determined to include it in my Illustrations. The figures in the plate were taken from two specimens procured by Captain James Clark Ross, one of which was an adult male, the other a young bird in its second year. Captain Sabine says that the Ivory Gulls are attracted in considerable numbers by whale blubber, are therefore usually found in company with the Procellaria glacialis, and are easily killed, being by no means shy.”

John James Audubon, Birds of America (New York: J.J. Audubon; Philadelphia: J. B. Chevalier, 1840-1844), vol. 7, p. 150.

View bird in National Audubon Society Guide to North American Birds.

A specimen of this species, collected by Audubon, is housed within the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.