LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 191 



Bay), but the record is open to some doubt. Taken in summer, and 

 perhaps was breeding near Spitzbergen (82° N.), Franz Josef Land 

 (Hvidtenland) near the Bennett Islands, near Wrangel Island, in 

 northeastern Siberia (Pitlekaj), and on Melville Peninsula (Alag- 

 nak). 



Winter range. — Unknown. Taken at Bering Island, December 10 ; 

 Heligoland, February 5 ; Faroe Islands, February 1 ; France (coast 

 of Verdee), December 22; and Italy (Sardinian Sea), January. 



Spring migration. — Taken in the Pribilof Islands (St. George), 

 May 25, probably a straggler. 



Fall migration. — Birds leave their breeding grounds in northeast- 

 ern Siberia about July 20 and are abundant at Point Barrow, flying 

 east, between September 10 and October 9. Taken at St. Michael, 

 Alaska, October 10 ; at Heligoland, October 25 to November 10 ; and 

 at New Siberia Islands in September. 



Casual records. — Accidental in England (Yorkshire), in France 

 (Verdee, December 22, 1913), and in Italy (Cagliari Bay, January, 

 1906). 



Egg dates. — Kolyma Delta : Three records, June 9, 10, and 11. 



XEMA SABINI (J. Sabine). 

 SABINE'S GULL. 



HABITS. 



This beautiful little gull was named for its discoverer, Capt. 

 Edward Sabine, who first saw it on its breeding grounds on some 

 low rocky islands off the west coast of Greenland, where it was 

 associated and breeding with a number of Arctic terns. It is not an 

 abundant bird, however, on the Greenland coast, but it has been 

 found breeding at widely scattered points in the Arctic regions of 

 both hemispheres. Its center of abundance during the breeding 

 season seems to be in the vicinity of Bering. Sea. Dr. E. W. Nelson 

 (1887) says: 



All the marshy coast districts on both shores of Bering Sea are chosen resorts 

 for this beautiful gull during the breeding season. It is especially numerous 

 along the Alaskan coast from the Kuskoquim mouth to Kotzebue Sound and 

 on the Siberian side from Plover Bay to beyond the Straits, but they occur 

 more as birds of passage along the latter coast than as summer residents. 



In the vicinity of St, Michael he 



found these birds to be among the most numerous of the gulls, and the main 

 body of arrivals came in the spring, as the ponds and small tide creeks were 

 nearly free from snow and ice, dating from the 15th to 25th of May. At this 

 season they wander in company with the Arctic tern, but the last of May 

 or 1st of June they congregate about the parts of the marshes selected for their 

 nesting ground. 



