190S.] 



BIRDS. 



271 



Xema sabini (Sab.). Sabine Gull. 



This small fork-tailed gull has been found breeding at several 

 points on the Arctic coast of Mackenzie, but has not been detected in 

 the interior. Sutherland recorded it from near Beechev island, 

 AA'here several Avere observed June 6. 1851.*^ J. C. Ross recorded it 

 from Felix Harbor, and states that it was reported to breed on the 

 west side of Boothia. It was recorded from this region by Eichard- 

 son. who found it breeding on an island off Point Dalhousie. August 

 S. IS^S. At this time the spotted young were accompanying their 

 parents on the wing. The eggs had been deposited in hollows in 

 the short and scanty mossy turf.^ ^lacFarlane found it breeding on 

 Franklin Bay in Jtme. 1865, and Baird. Brewer, and Eidgway de- 

 scribe eggs collected by him.^ MacFarlane states that eggs were 

 obtained by the Eskimo on Liverpool Bay.^ Scale states that in 

 189G this gull was first seen at Herschel Island on August 28.^ An 

 egg taken by Collinson at Cambridge Bay, Victoria Land, is in the 

 collection of the British ^luseum.^^ 



Sterna caspia Pallas. Caspian Tern. 



The widely distributed Caspian tern occtirs in summer in a few 

 localities, notably the deltas of the larger rivers, north to the mouth 

 of the Mackenzie. In 1901 we met with it but once, on July 9, when 

 a single bird was seen flying over the shallow lagoons between the 

 mouth of Slave Eiver and Stone Island, Great Slave Lake. 



In 1903 we observed it first at the delta of the Athabaska, June 2, 

 when several birds were seen. I frequently noted the species at Fort 

 Eesolution, June 20 to July 17. but seldom saw more than one or two 

 at a time. I saw several among the islands of the Xorthern Arm, 

 between Yellowknife Eiver and Fort Eae. July 25 and 26. and one on 

 Lake ^larian. July 31. 



Eichardson, undoubtedly referring to the present species, recorded 

 the ** Great Tern Sterna cayana " from below Harrison Island, near 

 the mouth of the Mackenzie, where he saw it on August 1, 1818.'' 

 Eoss, in 1862. noted the species as rare on Great Slave Lake.' During 

 the next few years the Smithsonian Institution received a number 



« .Journ. Voy. to Baffin Bay, II, p. 88, 1852. 



^Appendix Ross's Second Voyage, p. xxxvii, 1835. 



^Arctic Searching Expedition, I, p. 262, 1851. 



^ Water Birds X. A., II, p. 272, 1884. 



^ Proc. r. S. Nat. Mns., XIV, p. 419, 1891. 



f Proc. Acad. Xat. Sci. Phila., 1898, p. 133. 



9 Gates, Cat. Birds' Eggs Brit. Mus., I, p. 203, 1901. 



''Arctic Searching Expedition. I, p. 231, 1851. 



^Xat. Hist. Rev., II (second ser.), p. 289, 1862. 



