232 MII u. EMBLETON'S NOTICE OF THE LITTLE GULL. 



Ill led \\ith pebbles, the shells of nuts, and several seeds of the haw 

 or holly berry. Tcstcs about the size of a small pea, greyish and 

 roniform ; ctucal appendages two, originating about four inches up 

 the cloaca, sixteen inches in length, and filled with excrementitious 



matter 



Noticeof the Little Gull, Lams (Xema) minutus. By ROBERT EMBLE- 

 TON, Surgeon, Embleton. 



Of all the gulls which frequent the British shores, the present spe- 

 cies is by far the smallest, as well as the rarest : nor is it much more 

 common in the western part of the European continent, its native ha- 

 bitat being more especially the eastern portions of Russia, Livonia, 

 Hungary, and the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas ; and although 

 it has been considered as identical with a species common to America, 

 we have the best reasons for affirming it to be entirely distinct. It 

 was first noticed as occurring in our island by Colonel Montagu, since 

 which period examples have been killed at different times ; and we 

 have ourselves had the pleasure of receiving it in a recent state. 



Like the other species of the present genus, the Little Gull is a bird 

 which exhibits a remarkable disparity of colouring in the winter and, 

 summer states of plumage, as well as from youth to maturity. All 

 the examples killed in our island have been either in their immature 

 or winter plumage. In summer it is characterized by a black head, 

 which colouring it loses before the approach of winter; but in all the 

 winter-killed specimens we have had an opportunity of examining, 

 traces of this summer-plumage remained; and in this state an adult 

 is figured in " Selby's Illustrations," which is represented by the fore- 

 most bird in the plate. Its flight is as light and buoyant as can 

 well be imagined, and its general actions and form resemble those 

 of the rest of the genus. 



The colouring of the adults in their winter-plumage is as follows : 

 The whole of the upper surface is of a beautiful bluish-ash ; the quills 

 and secondaries tipped with white ; the throat and under surface pure 

 white, with a slight tinge of rose-colour; bill brownish-red; tarsi 

 bright red ; irides brown. In summer the whole of the head and up- 

 per part of the neck become of a brownish-black. The young, when 

 a year old, resemble the adult in the winter-plumage, with this ex- 

 ception, that the shoulders, scapulars, quill -feathers, and tip of the 

 mil, arc deep brownish-black, and that the beak and legs are not so 

 red. M> specimen proved on dissection to be a male, a young bird, 

 and \vas shut on the beach at Embleton during the severe \\eather in 

 the beginning of the present year, 1838. 



