312 NEW- YORK FAUNA — BIRDS. 



THE FORK-TAILED GULL. 



Larus sabini. 



plate cxxviii. fig. 281. 



(COLLECTION OF H. C. DE RHAM.) 



Larus sabini. Sabine, Linn. Tr. Vol. 12, p. 520, pi. 29. Richardson, F.B. A. Vol. 2, p. 428. 

 Xemaid. Leach, Ross's Voyage, App. Audubon, B. of A. Vol. 7. p. 127, pi. 441(male). 

 Larus id. Nuttall, Man. Orn. Vol. 2, p. 296. Gieaud, Birds of Long island, p. 362. 



Characteristics. Tail forked. Bill black, yellow at tip. First five quills bordered with 

 white on their inner webs nearly to the tips. Summer, adult with a dark 

 grey hood, margined beneath with black. Length, 13 "0. 



Description, from a specimen shot on the coast of New-York. Bill slender, 1 ' long, 

 curved above, broadly notched near the tip, and the mental angle conspicuous. First and 

 second quills subequal, longest. Tarsus compressed, 1*4 long: tibia with a small naked 

 space below. Tail broadly forked or emarginate, of fourteen feathers. 



Color. Bill and feet black, the former for more than half its length, and tipped with yel- 

 low, with a slight orange tint on the mental angle. Head and neck dark slate, margined 

 beneath with black. Mantle pearl-grey. Anterior border of the wings, primary coverts, and 

 the first five quills black : external covert immaculate ; the succeeding ones tipped with white, 

 and the concealed webs of the posterior feathers white. Primaries broadly margined on their 

 inner webs with white nearly to their tips ; the remaining quills, most of the secondary coverts, 

 tips of the secondaries, tertials and scapulars, with the tail, neck and all beneath, pure white, 

 tinted with rosaceous. 



Length, 13" 0. 



The Fork-tailed Gull is but an occasional visiter to our shores, or at least has been but 

 rarely observed. It breeds from Newfoundland to the Arctic seas. The eggs are olive-colored, 

 blotched with brown. Found on both sides of the Atlantic. 



