250 LARID.E. 



FAMILY XLI LARID^E (GULLS). 



GENUS CXI. LARUS (GULL). 



SPECIES 239 SABINE'S GULL. 



Larus Sabini. Sabine. 

 Mouette de Sabine. Temm. 



THIS elegant gull, reminding us of the beautiful forms we 

 have seen comprised in the preceding family, is one of great 

 rarity of occurrence in the British isles. 



More rare in its occurrence in Britain, but two specimens 

 have been noticed,* whilst in our own island four of the 

 Larus Sabinii have been obtained : of these, three were shot 

 in the north of Ireland, and a single specimen in the Bay of 

 Dublin. 



Of great beauty in its summer plumage, it has not been 

 noticed in that stage in southern or temperate Europe ; the 

 preceding birds, obtained in the autumn of different years, 

 being the first noticed either in that plumage or in their 

 occurrence in Europe, by the late William Thompson of 

 Belfast. 



An inhabitant for the most part of the Arctic regions, it 

 was first met with and killed by Captain Sabine, R. A., on 

 islands off the west of Greenland.! 



Habitat Northern Europe. 



SPECIES 240 THE LITTLE GULL. 



Larus minutus. Pallas. 

 Mouette pygmee. Temm. 



THE LITTLE GULL, the smallest of the Laridas, is one of the 

 most attractive of the family, and is of great rarity in its oc- 

 currence. Elegantly marked, its pretensions to beauty, when 

 newly killed in the plumage of summer, are very great indeed, 

 the peculiar clear white plumage of the abdomen charac- 

 terizing almost all the gulls being in this instance overspread 

 with a roseate tint, similar in appearance to that which has 

 obtained a name for the roseate tern. 



Shot in three or four instances, its first occurrence was re- 

 corded in 1840, from a specimen shot by an officer on the 



* Jardine. t Thompson. 



