374 
these specimens, killed October 22nd, 1881, which I was fortunate 
enough to secure for my collection, was sent to me in the flesh, and 
being in immature plumage — as was also the other bird obtained on 
the 17th — I should have had some difficulty in identifying it hut 
for the forked tail. In its adult state, Sabine’s Gull was, of course, 
well known to me, and on turning to the coloured representations 
of the young in Gould’s ‘Birds of Great Britain’ and in Dresser’s 
‘ Birds of Europe,’ I found my specimen most accurately delineated, 
the peculiar markings on the hack and wing-coverts being quite 
unmistakable. It proved, on dissection, to be a female, and the 
other, which was purchased by Mr. Connop of Caister, Avas 
ascertained by Mr. LoAvne, a birdstuffer at Yarmouth, to ' be 
a male. 
It seems somewhat remarkable that this Arctic species, which has 
been procured several times in Great Britain, should not, hitherto, 
have been recognized on some portion of our extensive sea-board ; 
but, probably, as I have remarked in more than one instance of 
late years, in the case of additions to our list of rare and accidental 
migrants, — the wanderers of 1881 may prove but the pioneers of 
others of their race. In consulting, however, the records of 
specimens said to have occurred in the British Islands, as given by 
Dresser, and by Harting in his ‘Handbook of British Birds,’ 
I find that of fifteen killed in England and Wales, seven occurred 
on the south coast from Sussex to Cornwall ; one on the Thames ; 
tAVO in Yorkshire ;t one in Essex; and one in Cambridgeshire 
{fide Yarrell), the only one observed inland. On the AA^estern 
coast tAvo have been shot at Weston-super-Mere, and one at 
klUford Haven in Pembrokeshire. In Ireland seven siiecimens 
have been recorded by Thompson and Blake Knox, Avhilst a 
note in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1860 (p. 6971), by Thomas EdAvards, 
that he had once seen one on the Banffshire coast, is the solo 
entry for Scotland. It is noticeable, also, that this species is 
* The Avhite-Avinged black Tern for example. 
+ One killed at Bridlington on September 5tb, 1866, and one at the same 
place, August 10th, 1872. Sec Cordeaux’s ‘ Birds of the Humber District.’ 
Mr. J. II. Gurney, Jun., also possesses an immature specimen, sex not 
ascertained, Avhicb was shot by Matthew Bailey, near Smithwick Buoy, 
three miles south of Flamborough Head, October 15th, 1873. 
