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.SIT* )) 



SABINE'S GULL. 



Larus Sabini. 



PLATE XXIV. 



Xema Sabini, Leach. Mouette de Sabine, Temm. The 

 Sabine, or Sabine's Gull, of British authors. 



THE first British specimens of this gull were noticed 

 and brought before the public by William Thomp- 

 son, Esq. Belfast, and up to 1839, four specimens 

 of this rare species had occurred in different parts 

 of the coast, all during the month of September., 

 and were all which at that time were known to 

 have been met with within the British range. These 

 were noticed in the Magazine of Zoology and Bo- 

 tany and in the Annals of Natural History, and we 

 were indebted to Mr. Thompson for a drawing of 

 the bird in its young plumage, which appeared in 

 the Illustrations of Ornithology. Since 1839 Mr. 

 Yarrell states that he has notes of one shot at Mil- 

 ford Haven, and another in Cambridgeshire. A fow 

 straggling specimens have also been killed on the 

 Continent, but th ? true country of the species is in 

 the vicinity of the arctic circle. The first speci 



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