WATER BIRDS. 57 



trees that without question had been used by these birds. Many full plum- 

 aged birds were seen and numbers of young, but only one so young as to 

 be still unable to fly." 



The birds are commonly seen in flocks and usually breed in colonies, 

 many pairs using the same region, commonly an. island. The usual nesting 

 place of this bird is in the far north, where it builds its nest early in June, 

 usually on the horizontal branches of spruce trees and from five to twenty 

 feet from the ground. The nests are made of twigs, grasses and evergreen 

 leaves, and the eggs are almost invariably three. These are olive green 

 to olive gray, marked with small brown spots, and average 1.95 by 1.34 

 inches. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult in summer with the bill deep black, head dark slate, and mantle pale pearl -gray; 

 feet orange red. Three outer primaries mostly white, but with large black tips; rest of 

 primaries pearl-gray tipped with white, the fifth and sixth with subterminal black spaces. 

 Rest of plumage pure white, or rose-tinted in the breeding season. In winter plumage the 

 adult has the black of the head mostly replaced by white, only the crown and hind part 

 of head being mottled with grayish-black and white, and a slaty patch on the side of the 

 head; the feet flesh colored. Immature bird of the first year similar to the winter adult, 

 but with more dark coloring on the head; first primary with about half the inner web black, 

 second or third with outer webs wholly black, and tail with a broad sub-terminal dark 

 bar. Length, 12 to 14 inches; wing, 10.25; culmen, 1.20. 



18. Sabine's Gull. Xema sabini (Sab.). (62) 



Synonyms: _ Fork-tailed Gull.— Larus sabini, Sabine, 1819, Nutt., 1834, Aud., 1835. 

 — Xema sabini of most recent authors. 



Likely to be mistaken for Bonaparte's or Franklin's Gull, but the adult 

 always separable by the somewhat forked tail and the slate black head 

 and neck bounded below by a narrow black ring. 



Distribution. — Arctic regions; in North America south in winter to 

 New York, the Great Lakes, and Great Salt Lake; casual in Kansas, 

 Bahama, and on coast of Peru. 



The claim of Sabine's Gull to a place in the fauna of Michigan rests mainly 

 on the statement of Covert that one specimen, a female, was secured on 

 the Huron River, Ann Arbor, November 17, 1880 (Birds of Washtenaw 

 County, 1881). This specimen is said to have been killed by Mr. James 

 Bowyer, but cannot be located now. A male was taken on Delavan Lake, 

 Wisconsin, October 7, 1900 (Auk, XVIII, 392); two were taken on the 

 Mississippi River near Burlington, Iowa, October 16, 1891, and October 

 12, 1894 (Auk, XVI, 86). Mr. E. W. Nelson states that on April 1, 1873 

 while collecting along the shore of Lake ■Michigan in Illinois "I shot a 

 specimen in breeding plumage, but it fell just beyond my reach and a gale 

 off shore soon drifted it out of sight." (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, I, 41). 

 These are the only records for Michigan and its vicinity which are known 

 to us. 



This gull nests in the far north, in Alaska, Siberia, and Greenland, and 

 probably along most of the shores and islands of the Arctic Ocean. Its 

 nest is placed on the ground, commonly in the moss of the tundra, and the 

 eggs are three or four, olive or olive green spotted with dark brown, and 

 averaging L78 bv 1.26 inches. 



