LITTLE GULL. 591 



and the North Sea, ranging along the shores of France and 

 the Iberian Peninsula to the Mediterranean, throughout the 

 whole of which it is generally distributed, on both the Euro- 

 pean and African sides, from autumn to spring. On migra- 

 tion it also visits Switzerland and other inland portions of 

 the Continent. It tarries until somewhat late in spring on 

 the Black Sea and in the marshes of Southern Russia, and, 

 according to Sabanaeff, it is more numerous than any other 

 Gull in the Ural, nesting on the lakes in great colonies ; 

 but its best-known breeding-grounds are in the northern 

 morasses between Lake Ladoga and Archangel, the latter 

 being apparently its most northern limit. Eastward its 

 range extends across Siberia to the Lena, south of Yakutsk, 

 where Middendorff obtained it in May ; and he also found 

 it on the Stanovoi Mountains and on the southern shores of 

 the Sea of Okhotsk. As a straggler it has once visited 

 Northern India, but with that exception it is not known 

 to have occurred east of the southern extremity of the Cas- 

 pian, or south of the great Asiatic plateau ; nor does it visit 

 the Pamir range. It was formerly included among the birds 

 of the Fur countries of North America by Sabine and 

 Richardson, but no specimens are extant, and not only is 

 there no confirmatory evidence of its occurrence in the 

 Nearctic region, but it is almost certain that the species 

 meant was Bonaparte's Gull. 



A full and interesting account of the breeding of the Little 

 Gull is given in Dresser's ' Birds of Europe,' by Mr. W. Meves 

 of Stockholm. He found a large colony of these * Scheiks,' 

 as the Russians call them, in the vicinity of Lake Ladoga, the 

 nests being placed on almost floating islands, formed of plants 

 and constructed of leaves and grass. The eggs were usually 

 three or four in number, and only one nest contained five, 

 of which one was considerably less than the others. The 

 Common Tern was nesting among the Gulls ; but Mr. Meves 

 observed, on blowing an egg that he took out of a Gull 

 which he had shot, that the yolk was of a rich orange-red 

 colour, whereas in the eggs of the Common Tern it was 

 ochre-ycllow, and this difi'ereuce he found to be constant. 



