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LARIDiE. 
With the solitary exception of the bird above referred to, no 
other Tern than S. arctica has, to my knowledge, ever occurred 
in Shetland. 
SABINE’S GULL. 
Larus Sabini. 
On New Year’s Day 1861, I was stalking some Wild Ducks 
which were upon the ice in the middle of the Loch of Cliff, 
and had just shot one of them with a ball, when a Gull came 
up, and sailed round me repeatedly, keeping about twenty feet 
above my head. It was a good deal like a Common Gull, and 
first attracted my attention by the jet black colour of its legs 
and feet. The bird was unquestionably Sabine’s Gull ; but it 
was far out of reach by the time I had finished loading. 
[It would hence appear, as might be expected, Mr Yarrell is 
right in surmising that in winter plumage the black head-dress 
is absent, as in the other members of the Xema group.* The 
author was well acquainted with the Ivory Gull, the only less 
rare alternative with black legs. He would seem to have met 
with a second example of L. Sabini in Shetland, Mr Gray 
Birds of West of Scotland,” p. 473) quoting a note of his in 
1865 to that purport. There is no mention of it in the journals ; 
but the notes for the year 1862 are unfortunately not to be 
found. — Ed.] 
THE CUNEATE-TAILED GULL. 
Lar us Rossii. 
[In dealing with a bird so peculiarly scarce as L. Rossii, the 
always imperative obligation to be careful as to the soundness 
of evidence adduced becomes doubly binding. I shall there- 
fore content myself with laying before the reader all the testi- 
* It would appear that in every British species of Larus proper there is a 
tendency toward darkening about the head in the winter plumage. In the 
.so-called genus or suh-genus Xema it is in the summer that the darkening 
occurs. — En. 
