284 A HANDBOOK OF EUROPEAN BIRDS. 
Sub famine RIN. 
Genus XEMA. 
SABINE’S GULL. 
Xema sabini (7 Sadzne). 
Adult (Summer): L£xtire head dark slate-grey; round 
the neck a narrow black collar; lower part of neck white; 
back and wings French-grey ; primaries black, marked with 
white on the tips and on outer half of inner webs; rest of 
plumage white ; bill black at base, yellow at tip; legs, feet and 
claws reddish-black ; irides dark brown. Length 14 inches; 
culmen 1°25; wing 10°75 ; ¢atl (forked) g'°6 ; tarsus 2°4. 
Young in first plumage: Appear to have the prevailing 
colour of upper parts blackish-grey ; tail tipped with black ; 
outermost primaries black, brownish at base; chest-feathers 
pale ash-colour. 
Young in second year: “The forehead and crown 
white ; an irregular and rather broad dark band or patch on 
the nape where the collar joins the hood in the adult; the 
white tips of the primaries are abruptly abraded . . . legs and 
feet clay-brown ; mantle, tail, under parts and bill as in the 
adult ” (Saunders). 
Distribution: Almost Circumpolar. Occurs casually in 
temperate Europe. In the Pacific Ocean, ranges south of the 
Equator, but in the Atlantic is not found south of the Ber- 
mudas. 
Habitat: Strictly oceanic. 
Genus LARUS. 
LITTLE GULL: 
Larus. minutus /7el/. 
Adult (Summer): Sack, wings and coverts delicate 
french-grey ; under surface of wings greyish-black ; axillaries 
greyish-white ; ext¢rve head black ; plumage otherwise, including 
tips of wing-quills, pure white, the breast sometimes tinged 
with delicate pink ; bill dark red ; legs and feet coral-red ; irides 
