188 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



their breeding haunts; and again off the Islands of Orkney to the 

 west, and off Cape Wrath, in Sutherland. 



LITTLE GULL. 



Chroicocephalus minutus (Pallas). 



An immature specimen of this species was shot in Berwickshire 

 on the 14th August, 1879. I saw the specimen in the premises of 

 Mr. Hope, naturalist, George Street, Edinburgh, on the 18th 

 September, where it had been sent for preservation. While 

 comparatively rare upon our Scottish coasts, the Little Gull 

 occasionally appears in large numbers a little way further south 

 upon the English coast. Breeding in large numbers on the Russian 

 lakes of Ladoga and that district, their line of migration would 

 appear, in such seasons as they visit us, to be down the Baltic, and 

 so to the English coast. By Mr. A. Brotherston's " Notes " \_Proc. 

 Berw. Nat. Club: loc. cit.] it will be seen that Coldingham Loch is 

 a favourite resort of the species, where one in Mr. Wilson's (of 

 Coldingham) collection was obtained, and where Mr. A. Brother- 

 ston saw another in 1877. 



COMMON GULL. 

 Larus canus, Lin. 



This and the next species were often seen during the storm 

 feeding on the offal in the streets and ashpits, and disputing with 

 the sparrows [Ii. Imrie, loc. cit]. 



BLACK-HEADED GULL. 



Chroicocephalus rldibundus (Lin. ). 



An unusually rapid moult took place in this species this 

 spring [1879]. Numbers of the same flock accomplished a full 

 moult in three days, as observed by Mr. P. D. Maloch, Perth; 

 and a very similar rapid moult was observed here by myself, when 

 birds frequenting our river Carron, as they always do in spring, 

 changed from mottled heads to black in two, or at most three, 

 days. Some birds frequented our river course and low fields quite 

 three weeks later in spring than usual. One breeding place, 7 

 miles from here, is dried up, and all the birds have left. 



I visited a large colony near the Port of Menteith, on the 22nd 

 May, when the birds^appeared to be engaged in incubation. 



