180 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



May 12 to 22; California, Monterey, rare after May 18, latest June 

 2; British Columbia, transients passing from April 11 to May 24. 



Fall migration. — Southeastward to the Atlantic coast via James 

 Bay and the Great Lakes. Early dates of arrival : Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence, August 4 ; Massachusetts, August 13 ; South Carolina, Charles- 

 ton, August 20; Florida, Coronado, September 16. Late dates of 

 departure : Quebec, Montreal, October 1 ; Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 November 25 ; Massachusetts, December 23. Late dates of departure 

 in the interior : Manitoba, October 24 ; Minnesota, Aitkin, November 

 2; Nebraska, Lincoln, November 3; Missouri, Jackson County, De- 

 cember 8. On the Pacific coast early arrivals reach California, 

 Los Angeles County, August 20. Late birds recorded in Alaska, 

 Unalaska, October 5. 



Casual records. — Accidental on Laysan Island (December 27, 

 1912), on Heligoland (winter, 1845), and in Great Britain (8 or 10 

 records). 



Egg dates. — Anderson River region: Twenty records, June 10 to 

 July 5 ; ten records, June 17 to 23. 



LARUS MINUTUS Pallas. 



LITTLE GULL. 



HABITS. 



Contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend. 



The little gull is appropriately named, for it is the smallest of 

 all gulls, being but 11 inches in length. Bonaparte's gull, one of 

 the next smallest gulls, averages 3 inches longer. Although a native 

 of Europe and Asia, breeding in the northern parts and wintering 

 as far south as the Mediterranean, it deserves a secure place in the 

 American avifauna, as there are several authentic records of its 

 occurence in this country and others which are reasonably certain. 

 The first is mentioned by Swainson and Richardson (1831), who 

 say: 



A specimen obtained on Sir John Franklin's first expedition was determined 

 by Mr. Sabine to be a young bird of the first year of this species, exactly 

 according to M. Temniinck's description. 



According to Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1884), one was ob- 

 tained at Bermuda on January 22, 1849, by Major Wedderburn, 

 and another one was killed in the following month; also specimens 

 were obtained near Mazatlan, on the western coast of Mexico, in 

 1868 by Colonel Grayson. The first thoroughly authentic specimen 

 is recorded by Dutcher (1888) of a bird shot by Robert Powell at 

 Fire Island, Long Island, New York, about September 15, 1887. The 

 specimen is now in the American Museum of Natural History. A 



