55 



SABINE'S GULL, 



SABINE S XEME. 



Larus Sabini, JENYNS. YARRELL. 



" Sabinci, TEMMINCK. 



Xema Sabini, LEACH. EYTON. GOULD. 



Larus ? Sabini Sabine's, or of Sabine. 



THIS neat and graceful bird was first discovered as a new 

 one by Captain Edward Sabine, of the Royal Artillery, who 

 accompanied the expedition of 1818, in search of a north-west 

 passage: they were noticed July 18th. on the coast of Greenland; 

 one subsequently in Prince Regent's Inlet, and afterwards many 

 on Melville Peninsula; also in Felix Harbour, Behring's Straits, 

 Cape Garry, and Igloolik; as also off Newfoundland, and at 

 Halifax, in Nova Scotia. In Europe one on the coast of 

 Holland, one on the Rhine, and one in France, near Rouen. 

 They belong to Spitzbergen. 



A specimen of this Gull was shot at Newhaven, in Sussex, 

 in December, 1853. In Cambridgeshire one, and one at 

 Milford Haven, in the autumn of 1839. 



It is also an Irish species, the first recorded British example 

 having been shot in the Bay of Belfast, in September, 1822; 

 a second occurred in Dublin Bay ; and a third in October, 1837 ; 

 which fell to the gun of H. H. Dombrain, Esq. 



They feed on marine insects, which they stand and watch 

 and search for by the water's edge. 



If the nesting-places of these Gulls be approached, they 

 dash with impetuosity at and about an intruder, in the 

 endeavour to scare or lure him away. Most birds, as has 

 already been so often shewn in the present work, resort to 

 every expedient for this object, if not in the way of attack, 

 in that of concealment j a harmless 'suppressio veri,' which if 



