NATATORES. 251 



SABINE'S GULL, Larus Sabini. This rare and 

 beautiful little Gull, from its peculiar form of tail, 

 which is forked, and from the slenderness of its hill 

 and legs, may well he considered as the connecting 

 link between the Terns and Gulls. It was first met 

 with and killed * by Captain Sabine, E.A., in July, 

 1818, on low rocky islands off the west coast of 

 Greenland, and was described and named after him 

 by his brother, Mr. Joseph Sabine, in the 12th vol. 

 of the 'Linnsean Transactions.' Three specimens 

 only were known to Mr. Yarrell as having occurred 

 in England,\ and Mr. Thompson records but four 

 captures in Ireland.! 



The species was first described as British by the 

 last-named gentleman, in a paper read before the 

 Linnaean Society, in April, 1834, and in every 

 instance, hitherto, the specimens obtained in Britain 

 have been young birds in the plumage of the first 

 year. 



I have now the pleasure of recording the capture 

 of a fourth example in England, and the additional 

 satisfaction of being able to include it in my Cata- 

 logue of Middlesex birds. 



Early in September, 1862, Mr. J. Sorrell, of the 

 Trinity House, proceeded in a boat towards the 



* In the adult black-headed plumage. 



f Yarrell's ' British Birds,' vol. iii., p. 550. 



t Thompson's ' Birds of Ireland,' vol. iii., pp. 309 314. 



