NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 297 



Family LARID.^. Genus Xema, 



Sub-family LARIN^. 



SABINE'S GULL. 



Xe.ma sabinii (y. Sabi7ie). 



(British : Rare nomadic autumn migrant.) 



Single Brooded. Laying season, June and July, according 

 to locality. 



Breeding area : Northern Nearctic and Palaearctic 

 regions. Sabine's Gull is either very locally distributed 

 during the breeding season, or its nesting places are most 

 imperfectly known, notwithstanding its circumpolar 

 summer area. It appears to breed in Spitzbergen, and 

 was observed nesting by Middcndorff on the Taimyr 

 peninsula. It may also breed on the Siberian coasts of 

 Bering Strait, whence it is said to nest in suitable 

 localities across Arctic America from Ab.ska to Baffin 

 Bay, including Western Greenland, Avhere this species 

 was first discovered by^ Sir Edward Sabine, who found 

 it breeding in about lat. 75^°. MacFarlane records that 

 a large number of nests were found on the shores of 

 Franklin Bay. 



Breeding habits : Sabine's Gull wanders no further 

 south in winter than absolutely compelled by stress of 

 weather, and returns to its usual Arctic haunts as soon 

 as they become free from ice in June. Its favourite 

 breeding grounds are the marshy tundras and barren 

 grounds close to the Polar Sea, especially on some 

 peninsula, or even on an island in a lake or river near 

 the coast, or occasionally at some distance from it. But 

 little is known of the habits of this Gull during the 

 breeding season. It is gregarious and nests in colonies, 

 often in company with the Arctic Tern. Von Middcn- 

 dorff describes the nest as a mere hollow in the moss, 



