Sabine's gull. '.' 309 



fourth part of his 'Manuel/ p. 461 — which appeared iu 1840 — 

 as met with on the coast of Prance ; but whether on the Mediter- 

 ranean or Atlantic coast is not stated. 



A second record of the occurrence of this species in the 

 British Seas, appears, in a letter from Mr. Austin, in the ninth 

 volume of the ' Annals of Natural History/ p. 435, dated Bristol, 

 June 4, 184:2. The Sterna stolida is there mentioned as "a 

 summer visitor to St. George's Channel," and it is remarked that 

 " the flight of the noddy is extremely rapid, and it is so exceed- 

 ingly shy, that I could never get a shot at one, though watching 

 many times for a ' chance.' As I have never observed this bird 

 on the main shore, which it seldom, if ever, approaches, it probably 

 retires, after feeding, to some insulated rock to repose itself, with- 

 out fear of interruption. It appears a solitary bird, never 

 assembling in flocks hke the S. hirundo, but singly seeks its food 

 at some distance from land, though it occasionally pursues its 

 prey into the estuaries of the larger Irish rivers, or along the 

 outer shores of the coast." 



Audubon, in the fifth volume of his ' Ornithological Biography,' 

 gives a most interesting account of this species as an American 

 bird. It is copied in Yarrell's 'History of British Birds' 

 (vol. iii.), where the best information from other works is also 

 included. 



SABINE'S GULL. 



Fork-tailed Gull. 



Lams Sahini, Sabine."^ 



Young birds of the year have, in a very few instances, 

 been met with in autumn. 



I FIRST noticed its occurrence in Ireland, before the Linnean 

 Society, on the 15th of April, 1834, and a brief abstract of the 

 communication was then published in the ' London and Edinburgh 



* Sec p. 314 of . uvoluuic. 



