LITTLE GULL. 
Cl 
In Cornwall, two shot at Swanpool, Falmouth, by T. Passingham, 
Esq., January, 1847; and in thfe same month another was 
captured at Ponsnooth. In Essex one. One, a young bird, 
near London, at Chelsea. One in Kent, at Sheerness, in 1840, 
Mr. Chaffey, of Dodington, has informed me. Mr. Bullock 
obtained two specimens in 1819. 
In Scotland, one on the Firth of Clyde; also one on the 
Solway Firth, in the autumn of the year 1824. In Shetland 
one, a female, was shot by Mr. Robert Dunn, on the 7th. of 
April, 1853. 
It has occurred in Ireland, but only very rarely; two were 
seen, and one of them obtained, in the Bay of Belfast, in 
December, 1847; another on the Shannon—an adult bird in 
summer plumage. 
They frequent the mouths of rivers, lakes, and ponds. 
They are migratory in their habits. 
These birds seem to associate with the Terns; and are shy, 
and difficult to be approached. 
This Gull flies in a peculiarly swift and airy manner, ‘a la’ 
the Sea Swallow, one while hovering over a spot that contains, 
or seems to contain, some article of food, now wheeling about 
in graceful sweeps, and now soaring aloft to a great height 
in spiral movements, and away the sea-fowl hies to the place 
of its nightly rest. 
They feed on insects, worms, caterpillars, and the young 
fry of fish. 
Male; length, a little over ten inches; bill, bright red, in 
winter reddish black or brown; iris, very dark brown; behind 
the eye is a small crescent-shaped spot of white; in winter a 
small triangular black one before it. Head on the back, crown, 
and the neck all round, deep black, in winter brownish grey 
black; below white; in winter the forehead is white, the back 
of the head and nape white, streaked with more or less of 
greyish black; the sides white; the chin, throat, and upper 
part of the back, white; a dusky spot under the eye, and an 
oblong patch of dusky black rather behind it, going downwards; 
chin and throat, deep brownish black, in winter white; breast, 
white, tinted with rose-colour; back on the upper part, clear 
pale grey, coming forwards on the sides towards the breast; 
below white. 
The wings have the first two quill feathers of nearly equal 
length; they reach about an inch and a half beyond the end 
of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, mottled with 
