SABINE S GULL. 
311 
genus more in the form of the bill, and in the dimensions of the 
tarsus and tibia. 
“ In this specimen, of the L. Sabini , in the autumnal plumage of the first year, the 
forehead, space immediately above the eye, and between it and the hill (with the 
exception of the narrow line of greyish-black closely encircling the front and lower 
part of the eye), upper part of the throat, and sides of the neck, are white ; crown, 
nape, and hack of the neck, blackish-grey ; hack, scapulars, greater and lesser wing- 
coverts, blackish-grey, tinged with yellowish-brown, the extremity of every feather 
varying from greyish- white to white, as it approaches the tail ; under part of the 
throat and upper part of the breast, pale ash-colour ; lower breast and all the under 
plumage, white ; shafts of the first six primaries brownish-black at base, becoming 
gradually darker towards the extremity, where they are black in the first three, hut 
in the fourth, fifth, and sixth, they assimilate in colour to the feather at that part, 
which is white ; the entire of the outer webs of the first five, black ; the inner webs, 
with a broad edging of white to within from one to two inches of the end, which part 
is black in the first three, hut tipped with white in the fourth and fifth ; in the sixth 
the inner web is white, the outer black, excepting for three or four lines from the tip, 
where it is white, and again, at about an inch from the end, where a white spot of 
an oval shape appears.* Feathers of the tail twelve in number, white, with black 
tips ; in the two shortest the latter colour extends upwards of an inch from the end, 
in the outer weh especially ; of the other feathers, the black prevails in a less degree 
as they increase in length ; upper and under tail-coverts white. 
in. lin. 
12 0 
4 9 
10 0 
0 10 
1 5 
0 9 
1 4 
1 H 
1 1 
0 9i 
0 2 
1 0 ” 
“Length (total) ....... 
„ of tail 
„ of wing from carpus to end of first quill . 
„ of hill from forehead to point 
„ of bill from rictus to point .... 
„ of tibia hare of feathers from the tarsal joint for 
„ of tarsus ....... 
„ of middle toe and nail ..... 
„ of outer toe and nail ..... 
„ of inner toe and nail ..... 
„ of hinder toef and nail .... 
Depth of fork of tail 
[March 1838. — Having just seen the notes of the late Mr. Montgomery on this 
* This marking of the sixth primary is just the opposite of that observed by 
Mr. Sabine in some mature specimens, in which its prevailing colour was white, 
“ with sometimes a black spot near the end.” Dr. Richardson has remarked, in the 
‘Fauna Bor.-Amer.,’ that this primary is subject to variation. 
f This is placed so high that the point of the nail does not reach within 1| line 
of the ground. 
