LARIJ).-E. 



641 





SABINE'S GULL. 

 Xema sabixii (Joseph Sabine). 



This small and beautiful fork-tailed Gull is another of the species 

 first recognized in the United Kingdom by Thompson, who de- 

 scribed an immature example shot in Belfast Bay in September 

 1822 ; since which date about a dozen specimens have been taken 

 in Ireland. Many more are on record from various counties of 

 England and Wales, and a few from Scotland — all of these having 

 occurred between August and December ; while, with the exception 

 of two adults in summer-plumage obtained, respectively, at Brid- 

 lington in Yorkshire and on the Island of Mull, they have proved 

 to be young birds. 



Strange as it may appear, this almost circumpolar species was not 

 noticed in Norway till October 1886, but it had long been known 

 as a straggler to the islands and shores of the German Ocean and 

 the north-west coast of France. It was discovered — on the expe- 

 dition of 1 8 18 in search of a north-west passage — by the late Sir 

 Edward Sabine, who found it nesting in lat. 75° 29' N. on the west 

 side of Greenland, and it is now known to breed throughout the 

 Arctic regions of America from Baffin Bay to Alaska ; whence we 

 trace it in summer across the high latitudes of Asia as far as the 

 Taimyr peninsula, where Dr. von Middendorff obtained its eggs. 

 It has not, however, been recorded from Novaya Zemlya or Franz- 

 Josef Land, and appears to be rare or very local in Spitsbergen, while 



