The Sabine Gull 



No. 282 



Sabine's Gull 



A. 0. U. No. 62. Xema sabini (Sabine). 



Synonym. — Fork-tailed Gull. 



Description. — Adult in summer: Head and neck all around plumbeous-slate, 

 bordered posteriorly with black; mantle dark pearl-gray; upper border of wing black; 

 exposed primaries chiefly black, the inner ones changing to white marked with plum- 

 beous, the first six with white tips and increasing white on the inner webs; remaining 

 plumage, including slightly forked tail, white. Bill black, tipped with yellow; legs 

 and feet black; eyelids orange. Adult in winter: Similar, but slaty color of head and 

 neck reduced to ear-coverts and nuchal region; rest of head and neck white. Young: 

 Above, including most of head and mantle, grayish brown, each feather darkening 

 distally and tipped with buff}'; tail white, with a broad blackish subterminal band; 

 forehead, lores, upper tail-coverts, and underparts white. Emargination of tail about 

 1.25; that of young not much less (Coues). Length 330.2-355.6 (13.00-14.00). Aver- 

 age of 10 Monterey specimens: length (skins) 336.2 (13.24); wing 282.9 ( II - T 4); tail 

 119 (4.69); bill 26.3 (1.035); depth at angle 7.5 (.295); tarsus 35.2 (1.386). 



Recognition Marks. — Little hawk size. Black of wings and slate of head and 

 neck more extensive than in C. Philadelphia: bill black with yellow tip; tail slightly 

 forked; the black ring bordering the slate of head and upper neck all around is also 

 distinctive. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: A depression in tundra moss, 

 sand-beach, or bare earth. Eggs: 2 or 3; buffy olive, marked with brownish olive 

 and sepia. Av. size 43.7 x 30.5 (1.72 x 1.20). Season: June— July. 



General Range. — The Arctic regions south irregularly to the coast of Peru. 

 Breeds in the Yukon delta, on St. Lawrence Island, along the coast of Mackenzie, and 

 locally on several islands of the American Arctic, and along the west coast of Greenland; 

 also in Siberia at least upon the Taimyr Peninsula. From these centers of dispersion 

 the birds visit other Arctic and sub-Arctic regions at the close of the breeding season, 

 and straggle southward. Migrates chiefly well off shore along the Pacific Coast of 

 America to Cape San Lucas, thence directly (?) to Peru. Occurs irregularly during 

 migrations over the greater part of the United States to the Texas coast. 



Occurrence in California. — Apparently a regular spring and fall migrant on 

 the ocean. Usually keeps well off shore, but occasionally straggles to land (Santa 

 Barbara, Aug. 25, 1915; El Cajon, Oct. 10, 1920), and has occurred far inland (Mono 

 Lake, Sept. 1901, Fisher). 



Authorities. — W. E. Bryant ( Xema sabinii), Zoe, vol. iii., 1892, p. 165 (San 

 Francisco Bay); W. K. Fisher, Condor, vol. iv., 1902, p. 10 (Mono Lake) ; Beck, Proc. 

 Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 4, vol. iii., 1910, p. 63 (Monterey Bay). 



THE OFF-SHORE life of California is a sealed book to most of us. 

 Something of its rich and varied interest has been hinted by the investiga- 

 tions of Leverett M. Loomis and of Rollo H. Beck near Monterey. Now 

 and then a fortunate yachtsman, like Howard Wright of Pasadena, teases 

 our imagination by reports of Sabine Gulls and other rarities seen on the 



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