WATER BIRDS. 57 
trees that without question had been used by these birds. Many full plum- 
aged birds were seen and numbers of young, but only one so young as to 
be still unable to fly.” 
The birds are commonly seen in flocks and usually breed in colonies, 
many pairs using the same region, commonly an island. The usual nesting 
place of this bird is in the far north, where it builds its nest early in June, 
usually on the horizontal branches of spruce trees and from five to twenty 
feet from the ground. The nests are made of twigs, grasses and evergreen 
leaves, and the eggs are almost invariably three. These are olive green 
to Sal gray, marked with small brown spots, and average 1.95 by 1.34 
inches. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult in summer with the bill deep black, head dark slate, and mantle pale pearl-gray; 
feet orange red. Three outer primaries mostly white, but with large black tips; rest of 
primaries pearl-gray tipped with white, the fifth and sixth with subterminal black spaces. 
Rest of plumage pure white, or rose-tinted in the breeding season. In winter plumage the 
adult has the black of the head mostly replaced by white, only the crown and hind part 
of head being mottled with grayish-black and white, and a slaty patch on the side of the 
head; the feet flesh colored. Immature bird of the first year similar to the winter adult, 
but with more dark coloring on the head; first primary with about half the inner web black, 
second or third with outer webs wholly black, and tail with a broad sub-terminal dark 
bar. Length, 12 to 14 inches; wing, 10.25; culmen, 1.20. 
18. Sabine’s Gull. Xema sabini (Sab.). (62) 
Synonyms: Fork-tailed Gull—tLarus sabini, Sabine, 1819, Nutt., 1834, Aud., 1835. 
—Xema sabini of most recent authors. 
Likely to be mistaken for Bonaparte’s or Franklin’s Gull, but the adult 
always separable by the somewhat forked tail and the slate black head 
and neck bounded below by a narrow black ring. 
Distribution.—Arctic regions; in North America south in winter to 
New York, the Great Lakes, and Great Salt Lake; casual in Kansas, 
Bahama, and on coast of Peru. 
The claim of Sabine’s Gull to a place-in the fauna of Michigan rests mainly 
on the statement of Covert that one specimen, a female, was secured on 
the Huron River, Ann Arbor, November 17, 1880 (Birds of Washtenaw 
County, 1881). This specimen is said to have been killed by Mr. James 
Bowyer, but cannot be located now. A male was taken on Delavan Lake, 
Wisconsin, October 7, 1900 (Auk, XVIII, 392); two were taken on the 
Mississippi River near Burlington, Iowa, October 16, 1891, and October 
12, 1894 (Auk, XVI, 86). Mr. E. W. Nelson states that on April 1, 1873 
while collecting along the shore of Lake Michigan in Hlinois “I shot a 
specimen in breeding plumage, but it fell just beyond my reach and a gale 
off shore soon drifted it out of sight.” (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, I, 41). 
These are the only records for Michigan and its vicinity which are known 
to us. 
This gull nests in the far north, in Alaska, Siberia, and Greenland, and 
probably along most of the shores and islands of the Arctic Ocean. Its 
nest is placed on the ground, commonly in the moss of the tundra, and the 
eggs are three or four, olive or olive green spotted with dark brown, and 
averaging 1.78 by 1.26 inches. 
