388 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



very small Gulls beating about the mouth of the Somerset Axe. A man 

 who was loafing about with a gun walked down and shot one of them, 

 which proved to be a very pretty example of Sabine's Gull in immature 

 dress. This we secured from him, and have still in our collection. There 

 is another, in very similar plumage, in the collection of birds presented 

 by Mr. Horner to the Literary Institution in Frome, which we doubt not 

 is a West Country specimen. Some nine or ten appear to have been 

 recorded from the South Devon coast. 



Two oecurred near Brixhain, Torbay, in October 1844 (W. S. H., Zool. 1845, p. 879). 

 A bird of the year in Plymouth Sound in the autumn of 1866 (J. G., Zool. 1867, 

 p. .557). Another was in tlie collection of the Rev. Alan Furneaux, of St. Germans, 

 and is now in the Plymouth Athenteum. It was killed by a wild-fowl shooter at night 

 amongst a flock of Curlews (J. G.). A young bird shot in Torbav a few years before 

 1862 was in the collection of the late Mr. Cecil Smith (M. A. M., iZool. 1863, p. 8448 ; 

 G. F. M., ' Naturalist,' 1866, p. 360). Mr. E. Burt, Curator of the Torquay Natural 

 History Society's Museum, knew of but two instances of its occurrence in Torbay in 

 twenty-five years — the first being probably that mentioned above in 1844, and the 

 second was an immature bird shot on October 23rd, 1866, out of a flock of Kittiwakes 

 attended by Skuas by Mr. E. Schofield. Mr. Ross, in his MS. ' Journal of Occurrences 

 in Natural History' (vol. iii. p. 4), and MS. ' British Larida3,' figures a Gull witii a 

 slightly forked tail in immature plumage, which he says was common on the coast, and 

 was known as the ' Sea-Pigeon ' on the Exe. He considered it the voung of Sabine's 

 Gull. 



Several examples of Sabine's Gull were obtained on the S.W. coast after the gales of 

 October 1891. Mr. E. A. S. Elliot shot one on October 19th ofi' Beesands in Start Bay, 

 which was in company of a flock of Common and Arctic Terns (Zool. 1892, p. 34). 



In Cornwall immature examples of Sabine's Gull are occasionally pro- 

 cured in the autumn. Br. Bullmore received one or two from the 

 neighbourhood of Falmouth, and Mr. Ilodd (Zool. 1866, p. 501) described 

 one which was knocked down with an oar on Mount's Bay as it was 

 flying about with one or two others. In the museum at Truro we saw 

 an immature example, without any label attached, which had probably 

 come from Looe, the locality which supj^lied most of the marine birds to 

 the collection. And Mr. T. Cornish (Zool. 1892, p. 22) records one which 

 was shot at Newlyn by Mr. C. Yingoe, about the middle of October 1891. 

 The same stormy month produced the example at Kingsbridge mentioned 

 above, and another, October 13th, at Bournemouth (Zool. 1892, p. 22), 

 which is reported as an adult in winter plumage. This example was 

 picked up dead in a field, and, from the description given of it by Mr. 

 F. Coburn, was a very interesting specimen : " the plumage on the whole 

 of the underparts was beautifully suftused with salmon-pink, which was 

 observable for several days after the bird had been skinned and mounted. 

 The white tips to the black primaries have a twisted and worn appearance. 

 The tail is not so acutely forked as shown in Yarrell's figure, while the 

 sharp angle to the lower mandible was not at all observable in the fresh 

 bird, but is beginning to appear as the bill dries." The colours of the soft 

 parts, as given by Mr. F. Coburn, are : " Tibia, tarsus, and toes, also webs, 

 ])ale drab colour, with a shade of umber at the joints and on the webs. 

 Nails dark umber. Bill from base to a little beyond nostrils black, re- 



