Sabine's Gull

SCI Name:  Xema sabini
Protonym:  Larus Sabini Trans.Linn.Soc.London(1), 12 p.522 pl.29
Taxonomy:  Charadriiformes / Laridae / Xema
Taxonomy Code:  sabgul
Type Locality:  Sabine Islands, near Melville Bay, west coast of Greenland.
Author:  Sabine
Publish Year:  1819
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

XEMA
(Laridae; Ϯ Sabine's Gull X. sabini) Coined from substantive name “Sabine’s Xeme” given to Sabine’s Gull by Leach 1819. Brookes 1828, has "Sabine's Xema", and Wood 1837, has “Zeme”; "Xema  ...  Da ich Wort Xema in keinem Wörterbuche gefunden: habe ich es nach der Aehnlichkeit mit σχεμα, σωμα u. dergl., als Neutrum gebraucht." (C. L. Brehm 1831); “Some authors having found difficulty in selecting generic names which have not been used before, have adopted the plan of coining words at random without any derivation or meaning whatever. The following are examples: Viralva, Xema” (Strickland Code 1842); “At one time Gray and others seem to have believed that the word Xema was a genuine Greek substantive, neuter; but it appears to be a purely fanciful word with an apparently feminine termination” (Saunders 1896); “a fancy name, apparently devoid of meaning” (BOU 1915) (cf. Gr. ξενη xenē  stranger (fem. from ξενος xenos); χειμα kheima  winter, storm); "Genus XEMA. Leach (Xeme).  THIS genus approaches to the GULL in the form of its beak, and to the TERN in having a furcate tail as well as in the general form and proportion of its legs; the only species hitherto discovered is the following: — Species XEMA SABINI, (Sabine's Xeme, non-descript)  LARUS SABINI (Sabine)." (Leach 1819); "Xema Leach, in Ross' Voy. Disc., 1819, app. 2, p. lvii. Type, by monotypy, Larus sabini J. Sabine." (Peters, 1934, II, p. 326).
Var. Chema (Gr. χημη khēmē  yawning), Zemia, Zema.
Synon. Gavia.

sabinei / sabini
● Joseph Sabine (1770-1837) English naturalist, barrister, Inspector of Assessed Taxes 1808-1835 (subsp. Bonasa umbellus, syn. Gallinago gallinago (Michael Grayson in litt.), Rhaphidura, syn. Rissa tridactyla).
● Gen. Sir Edward Sabine (1783-1883) British Army, astronomer, physicist, Arctic explorer 1818-1820, President of the Royal Society 1861-1871 (Dryoscopus, syn. Neafrapus cassini, Xema).

SUBSPECIES

Sabine's Gull (palaearctica)
SCI Name: Xema sabini palaearctica
palaearctica
Mod. L. palaearcticus  palearctic, palaearctic, of the northern Old World  < Gr. παλαιος palaios  old; αρκτικος arktikos  northern.

Sabine's Gull (tschuktschorum)
SCI Name: Xema sabini tschuktschorum
tschuktschorum
Chukhotski Peninsula, Siberia.

Sabine's Gull (woznesenskii)
SCI Name: Xema sabini woznesenskii
woznesenskii
Ilya Gavrilovich Voznesensky (1816-1871) Russian zoologist, explorer, collector in Siberia, Alaska and California (subsp. Xema sabini).

Sabine's Gull (sabini)
SCI Name: Xema sabini sabini
sabinei / sabini
● Joseph Sabine (1770-1837) English naturalist, barrister, Inspector of Assessed Taxes 1808-1835 (subsp. Bonasa umbellus, syn. Gallinago gallinago (Michael Grayson in litt.), Rhaphidura, syn. Rissa tridactyla).
● Gen. Sir Edward Sabine (1783-1883) British Army, astronomer, physicist, Arctic explorer 1818-1820, President of the Royal Society 1861-1871 (Dryoscopus, syn. Neafrapus cassini, Xema).