338 



Nestling (fide Middendorff, Sib. Reise, p. 245, pi. 24). Underparts whitish grey, upper parts rusty yellow, 

 all over spotted with black. In his plate he represents the lower part of the breast and abdomen as 

 being pure greyish white, unspotted. 



This beautiful Gull is an inhabitant of the arctic regions of Asia and America, being but a rare 

 straggler to the northern portions of Europe. It was first described from Davis's Straits by 

 Mr. Joseph Sabine, who writes as follows : — " I received in the last summer, by one of the 

 whaling ships from Davis's Straits, a collection of birds, which had been made by my brother, 

 Captain Edward Sabine, of the Royal Artillery, who accompanied the late expedition in search of 

 a north-west passage. Among them were specimens of a Gull hitherto unknown and undescribed. 

 My brother's account of them was as follows : — They were met with by him and killed on the 

 25th of July last on a group of three low rocky islands, each about a mile across, on the west 

 coast of Greenland, twenty miles distant from the mainland, in latitude 75° 29' N., and longitude 

 60° 9' W. They were associated in considerable numbers with the Sterna hirundo, breeding on 

 those islands, the nests of both birds being intermingled. This species lays two eggs on the bare 

 ground, which it hatches the last week in July : the young when first hatched are mottled with 

 brown and dull yellow. The eggs are an inch and a half in length, and of regular shape, not 

 much pointed; the colour is olive, much blotched with brown. They flew with impetuosity 

 towards persons approaching their nests and young ; and when one bird of a pair was killed, its 

 mate, though frequently fired at, continued on wing close to the spot where it lay. They get 

 their food on the sea-beach, standing near the water's edge and picking up the marine insects 

 which are cast on shore." 



It has occurred several times in Great Britain. Yarrell (Brit. Birds, iii. p. 550) says that 

 one was "killed at Milford Haven in the autumn of 1839, and another, shot in Cambridgeshire, 

 was shown to me by Dr. Fitch. A fine specimen was obtained at Newhaven in December 1853, as 

 recorded by Mr. William Borrer." Mr. Hore records two from Brinham, Torbay, in October 1843, 

 (Zool. 1845, p. 879). Mr. George Dawson Rowley records one from Hove, Brighton, 7th October, 

 1858 ; Mr. Edward (Zool. 1860, p. 6974) refers to one having been seen on the Banffshire coast ; 

 one obtained by Mr. Thomas Sorrell at Barking Creek, on the 8th September, 1862, is now in 

 Mr. Saunders's collection; Mr. Mathew records one (Zool. 1863, p. 8692) from Weston-super- 

 Mare; Mr. Rodd (Zool. 1866, p. 501) refers to one having been obtained at Mounts Bay, Corn- 

 wall, in September 1866; Mr. Boulton (Zool. 1867, p. 543) states that one was obtained at 

 Bridlington, Yorkshire, 5th September, 1866 ; Mr. Gatcombe (Zool. 1867, p. 557) records one 

 from Plymouth in the autumn of 1866 ; Mr. Mathew (Zool. 1867, p. 992) records one as obtained 

 at Weston-super-Mare on the 14th September, 1867; and Mr. Harting (Hand, of Brit. Birds, 

 p. 172) states, on the authority of Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., that one was obtained at Eastbourne 

 on the 10th October, 1870. 



Referring to its occurrence in Ireland, Thompson (B. of I. iii. p. 309) says that he " first 

 noticed its occurrence in Ireland before the Linnean Society on the 15th of April, 1834, when 

 the following paper was read : — ' On the present occasion I have the high satisfaction of 

 enriching the British Fauna by adding to it the beautiful Lams sabini. The bird now exhibited 

 was shot in Belfast Bay on the 18th of September, 1822, by the late John Montgomery, Esq., 



