NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND THEIR ALLIES. 65 



evidently a wanderer, was taken on St. George Island. Alaska, 

 May 25, 1911 (Evermann). 



In the 35 years following discovery of this species only two in 

 dividuals were seen, one in latitude 82°, north of Spitzbergen, about 

 1827 (Ross), and one at Felix Harbor in either 1830 or 1831 (Ross). 

 During the next 20 years only about 10 additional birds were seen, 

 and then in the three years from 1879 to 1882, the real home was 

 found and the birds were seen by hundreds. 



In addition to the records given in the foregoing, Ross's gull has 

 been taken on the west coast of Greenland about six times, from 

 Sukkertoppen to Melville Bay (Schalow); north of Spitzbergen in 

 midsummer, about latitude 84° 40' (Sverdrup) — the most northern 

 record to date; near Franz Josef Land, one in 1873 (Payer); two in 

 Kamchatka (Saunders); and one in Yorkshire, England (Saunders). 



SABINE'S GULL. Xema sabini (J. Sabine). 



Range. — Arctic regions of both hemispheres, south to South 

 America. 



Breeding range. — Eggs of Sabine's gull have been taken in only a 

 few localities, but these are scattered across the Arctic coast from 

 Greenland on the east to the mouth of the Yukon on the west, about 

 a hundred degrees of longitude. Then comes a space of a hundred 

 degrees in which the species is not known to breed, and then a large 

 colony of nesting birds is recorded from the Taimyr Peninsula in 

 northwestern Siberia (Middendorff) , with no other known breeding 

 place within 2,000 miles in either direction. It is evident that the 

 real summer home of the species is in the Arctic regions of the Western 

 Hemisphere and that the breeders on the Siberian coast must be 

 considered a sporadic colony. 



The type specimen was taken in latitude 75° 30' in Melville 

 Bay, on the west coast of Greenland, July 25, 1818 (Sabine), 

 where the species was common and young were just hatching. The 

 most northern breeding record on this coast is at Thank God Harbor, 

 latitude 81° 40', where a bird was taken containing an egg just 

 ready to be laid (Davis). To the westward the breeding range is 

 much farther south, since eggs were taken in latitude 63°, on South- 

 ampton Island in Hudson Bay during the summer of 1904 (Low). 

 Eggs were found by CoUinson at Cambridge Bay, and the species is 

 common to abundant as a breeder on the shores of Liverpool and 

 Franklin Bays, Mackenzie (MacFarlane) . It has not been found 

 nesting on any of the Arctic islands in either hemisphere, though it 

 was taken north to Walker Bay (Collinson), Wellington Channel 

 (Sutherland), and Prince Regent Inlet (Sabine). It was found com- 

 mon at Igloolik, on Melville Peninsula, but apparently did not breed 

 near there. Nor is it certain that it nests at Point Barrow, where 



