310 
LARIDiE. 
Philosophical Magazine/ vol. v. p. 299. The ‘ Magazine of 
Zoology and Botany ' (vol. i. p. 460) contained a full notice of 
the first two birds ; and all additional information procured down 
to 1838 was brought together and published in the sixth part of the 
second series of Jardine and Selby's f Illustrations of Ornithology.' 
The whole matter may be repeated here. The following was read 
before the Linnean Society, on the 15th of April, 1834 : — “ On 
the present occasion I have not only the high satisfaction of 
enriching the British Fauna, by adding to it the beautiful Larus 
Sabini , so lately discovered, but of describing the species in the 
plumage of the first year, in which attire it has never before come 
under the inspection of the ornithologist. The bird now exhibited 
was shot in Belfast Bay, on the 18th of September, 1822, by the late 
John Montgomery, Esq., of Locust Lodge, who carefully preserved 
it, under the impression that it was an individual of the closely- 
allied species Larus minutus , by which name it was distinguished, 
when presented in April 1833 to the Natural History Society of 
Belfast. Mr. Montgomery informed me, that from the diminutive 
size, &c., of this bird when first seen by him, he had no doubt 
of its rarity. It was so unwary as to alight once or twice within 
twenty yards of him ; but, to avoid disfiguring it, he fired from 
so great a distance, that it was only at the third shot eventually 
obtained. That the species is regardless of the report of a gun, 
was witnessed by Captain Sabine, in its breeding-haunts within 
the arctic circle, as he states, that ‘ when one bird of a pair was 
killed, its mate, though frequently fired at, continued on wing 
close to the spot where it lay.' 
ce Although the Larus Sabini closely approximates the Larus 
minutus in general appearance, the plumage of the first year, as 
well as that of maturity, being very similar in both species, the 
superior size of the L. Sabini , its tail being forked to the depth 
of an inch, and the comparatively greater length of its tibia and 
tarsus, may always (even in a preserved state) afford sufficient 
specific distinction. In the form of the tail, the L. Sabini 
approaches the typical species of Sterna more nearly than its 
congener, the L. minutus. The latter, however, resembles that 
