375 
not included by Mr. John Hancock amongst the “Birds of 
?s orthuinberland and Durham.” Nearly all the above specimens 
being, more or less, in immature plumage affords, as Mr. Gould 
remarks, “ additional evidence that young birds wander much 
further from their homos than adults.” 
i'he name of Sabine’s Gull was given by Joseph Sabine 
to this beautiful inhabitant of the boreal parts of the Nearctic 
and Palsearctic regions from its having been first met with and 
killed by his brother, Cajdain (now CJeneral) Edward Sabine, luA., 
in July, 1818 (when accompanying the expedition in search of 
the north-west passage), on a group of three rocky islands, off 
tlie west coast of Greenland, where they were associated, and 
breeding in considerable numbers, with the Arctic Tern (Sterna 
macrtira); laying their two eggs on the bare rocks,* and hatehing 
tlieir young late in July. 
Joseph Sabine first made known his brother’s discovery in 
tlio twelfth volume of the ‘ Transactions ’ of the Linnean Society, 
in which he described the habits of this Gull j and several specimens 
were also procured during Sir Edward Pany’s second voyage, on 
the ]\relvillc peninsula; but, as Mr. Dresser observes, though 
breeding in “the Arctic regions of Asia and America, it is but a 
rai’o straggler to the northern portions of Europe.” 
It appears doubtful whether any eggs were brought home by 
General Sabine in 1818, though ample opportunities occurred for 
taking them; but on the 10th of December, 18G1, Professor 
Jseuton exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society “the 
ruins ” of a Sabine Gull’s egg, received by him from Dr. Baldamus. 
The latter had obtained specimens t from von Middendorff, who 
had found this species on “ the lakes of the Tundras and the little 
islets at the mouth of the Taimyr, breeding abundantly in company 
• Sir John Eichardson ( ‘Journal of Boat Voyage,’ vol. i. p. 262), who found 
tliese Gulls breeding on an island off Cai^e Dalhousie says, the eggs arc 
dejiosited in hollows of the short and scanty mossy turf which clothes 
the ground.” 
t The eggs are described by Dresser as “ dull brownish-olive, in tinge of 
colour not unlike a nightingale’s egg, and are, here and there, marked with 
an indistinct dull brown blotch, the larger end being more marked than any 
other portion of the egg.” 
