40 



SABINE GULL 



G2. Xema sabini. 14 in. 



Tail slightly forked; bill small and black, tipped with 

 yellow. Adults in summer. Head with a slaty-gray 

 hood, edged with a black ring around the neck; outer 

 primaries black, with white tips, and edge of shoulder 

 black; feet blackish; eye ring orange red. In winter, 

 without the hood or collar, but the head is tinged with 

 gray on the ears and nape. Young birds most nearly 

 resemble those of the Bonaparte Gull, but the primaries 

 are blackish, and the tail slightly forked. This species 

 is very abundant within the Arctic Circle, but is not 

 as boreal as the last. 



Nest. In depressions in the ground, usually lined 

 with grass; the three eggs are olive-brown, marked with 

 deeper brown and black (1.75x1.25). 



Range. Breeds from northern Alaska and the islands 

 about the mouth of Hudson Bay northwards: winters 

 south on the Atlantic coast to Maine and rarely Xew 

 York. 



