SABINE'S GULL. 575 



Thames, near Barking Creek ; once inland, in Cambridge- 

 shire ; once in Norfolk ; one picked up starved near Shrews- 

 bury; six times in Yorkshire; once near North Berwick; 

 once in Banffshire ; once on the island of Mull ; once at 

 Milford Haven, in Wales ; and nine or ten times in Ireland. 

 The exceptions to the rule that the visitors are immature 

 birds, are : one adult in full summer plumage, Bridlington, 

 Yorkshire, August 10th, 1872 (Zool. s.s. 3316); and, so 

 recently as the 8th of September, 1 883, one with full slate- 

 coloured hood and ring, killed at Loch Spelvie, Mull, by the 

 Eev. F. W. Champneys. 



This species of Gull was first described (Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. xii. p. 520), by the late Joseph Sabine, from specimens 

 sent by his brother, Captain (afterwards Sir Edward) Sabine, 

 who accompanied the expedition of 1818 in search of a North- 

 West Passage. The account of these birds was that " they 

 were met with by Captain Sabine, and killed by him on the 

 25th of July, 1818, on a group of three rocky islands, each 

 about a mile across, on the west coast of Greenland, twenty 

 miles distant from the mainland in latitude 75 29' N., and 

 longitude 60 9' W. They were associated in considerable 

 numbers with Arctic Terns, breeding on those islands, the 

 nests of both birds being intermingled. This Gull lays two 

 eggs on the bare ground ; these are hatched the last week in 

 July ; the young are mottled at first with brown and dull 

 yellow. The eggs are an inch and a half in length, and 

 of regular shape, not much pointed ; the colour is olive, 

 blotched with brown. The parent birds flew with impetu- 

 osity towards persons approaching their nests and young ; 

 and when one bird of a pair was killed, its mate, though 

 frequently fired at, continued on wing close to the spot 

 where it lay. They get their food on the sea-beach, stand- 

 ing near the water's edge and picking up the marine insects 

 which are cast on shore." 



During Parry's second Arctic voyage a bird of this species 

 was seen in Prince Kegent's Inlet ; afterwards many speci- 

 mens were obtained on Melville Peninsula ; and it was 

 observed at Boothia Felix. Birds and one egg were obtained 



