522 Mr. Sasine’s Account of a new Species of Gull 
This is the description of the bird in its mature and breeding 
plumage: it is probable, that in its immature and winter state it 
resembles other black-headed Gulls, in being divested of the dark 
colour of its head. 
This species lays two eggs on the bare ground, which it hatches 
the last week in July: the young when first hatched are mottled 
with brown and dull yellow. The eggs are an inch and a half in 
length, and of regular shape, not much pointed; the colour is 
olive, much blotched with brown. 
Little of course can be known of the manners and habits of 
these birds, for they were not seen in any other instance during 
the voyage through Davis’s Straits and Baffin’s Bay: the Esqui- 
meaux who accompanied the expedition as interpreter, and who 
possessed some knowledge of the native birds of South Greenland, 
had never observed them before. "They flew with impetuosity 
towards persons“ approaching their nests and young; and when 
one bird of a pair was killed, its mate, though frequently fired at, 
continued on wing close to the spot where it lay. "They get their 
food on the sea-beach, standing near the water's edge and perte 
up the marine insects which are cast on shore. | 
In conformity with the custom of affixing the name of the ori- 
ginal discoverer to a new species, this bird has been called Larus 
Sabini. It will naturally fall into the division of the Gulls with 
black heads, of which there. are several species, though most of 
them are but little known, and it d be distinguished by the 
following specific character: | 
L. albidus, capite nigricante, torque « 
| rico nigro, Pr basi 
nigro apice luteo, pedibus nigris, cauda forficata, 
Tas. XXIX. 
The forked tail of the bird will fi ground, to those who are 
desirous of increasing the number of genera, to place this in a new 
genus 
