i8 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



on the open coast near Bowness-on-Solway. This he dis- 

 posed of to Mr. W. Mackenzie, as he thought that we had 

 enough Little Gulls already in the Carlisle Museum. A 

 seventh specimen was killed during the last days of October 

 1898; not, indeed, upon the Solway Firth, but upon the 

 Eden, which is one of the chief tributaries of this firth. 

 This bird was shot near Nunwick by the keeper of my 

 friend Mr. R. Heywood Thompson. I understand that it 

 was accompanied by another bird of the same species, which 

 escaped destruction. Other local specimens of Larus 

 ininutus are recorded in the " Fauna of Lakeland " ; but I 

 do not wish to refer to them now, because the specimens 

 just enumerated as taken locally, between 1893 and 1898, 

 suffice to illustrate the principal stages which Larus minutus 

 appears to pass through. In extreme youth, as exemplified 

 by the bird shot i6th September 1896, the Little Gull 

 wears a brown and white dress, rather suggestive of Larus 

 ridibundus in early life. The bird just mentioned has the 

 forehead white ; crown light brown, occiput rich dark brown, 

 upper back dark brown sprinkled with a few pearl -gray 

 feathers ; centre of back white ; lower back dark brown, 

 each feather being white at the base ; upper tail -coverts 

 white tipped with dusky brown. The scapulars are dark 

 brown, narrowly edged with pale buff, and one or two gray 

 feathers are present ; primaries black above, marked with 

 white on the inner webs ; secondaries white with blackish 

 central shaft-stripes ; tail white barred with black ; chin and 

 lower parts pure white, except the dark brown patch in 

 front of each wing. We reach a slightly more advanced 

 stage in the bird killed near Allonby on 9th October 1896. 

 The crown is now white as well as the forehead ; the warm 

 brown of the occiput and hind-neck have become paler, with 

 fine light edges to the feathers ; the dark mantle is now 

 profusely mottled with pearl-gray feathers ; the scapulars are 

 still dark brown. The dark patch in front of each wing has 

 grown fainter in colour, and is less prominent. The third 

 bird, viz. that shot near Nunwick at the end of last October 

 (1898), retains more nest plumage than is usually found at 

 such a late period of the autumn. The ear-coverts, which 

 are rich brown in the first-named, and slightly marked in 



