162 BRITISH BIRDS THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
299. NODDY TERN—(Sterna stolida). 
A bird of only rare and casual occurrence. - 
300. SABINE’S GULL— (Larus Sabin). 
This, the first of the Gulls which falls unaer our notice, is only 
a rare Visitor. : 
301. LITTLE GULL—(Larus minutus). 
Not only the least English Gull, but the least of all the Gulls, 
and a very pretty looking little bird. It is, however, only a 
visitor, though known, of late years, as putting in a more frequent 
appearance than had been before noticed. 
302. MASKED-GULL—(Larus capistratus). 
A very rare bird, and one of which only a very few specimens 
generally speaking, have been hitherto met with. 
303. BLACK-HEADED GULL—(Larus ridibundus). 
Brown-headed Gull, Red-legged Gull, Laughing Gull, Pewit 
Gull, Black-cap, Sea Crow, Hooded Mew.—This is a very numer- 
ous, and at least, at some periods of the year, a very generally 
diffused species. At the breeding time, although a few pairs may 
be met with in an infinite number of localities, the great bulk of 
the species seems to collect at a few chosen places. One such 
place, in which they breed in thousands, is on Scoulton Mere, 
in Norfolk; another at Pallinsburn, in Northumberland; and a 
third, in Lincolnshire, not far from Brigg. The nests are made 
of sedges, grass and the flowering part of the reed, and are not 
very deeply cup-shaped. The bird lays three eggs, and there is a 
very great degree of variation between them in respect of colour 
and markings; the ground-colour bemg sometimes of a light 
blue or yellow, and sometimes green, or red, or brown. Some, 
too, are thickly covered with spots, and others scarcely marked 
with a single speckle or spot. In more than one of their great 
