292 THE LITTLE GULL. 



prevails in a less degree as they increase in length ; 

 upper and under tail-coverts white." 



The plumage of the winter, or its range during 

 that season, are not known. ' 



THE LITTLE GULL, LARUS MINUTUS, Pallas 

 L. minutus, Pall., GmeL Chroiocephalus minutus^ 

 Eyton. Xema minuta, Gould. Mouette pyymce, 

 Temm. Little Gull of British authors. This beau- 

 tiful little species is also a rare bird, and neither its 

 breeding stations nor its true winter localities are 

 yet correctly traced. We are indebted to Colonel 

 Montagu for the first notice of it, from a young 

 specimen shot near Chelsea. Since that period 

 various specimens have been obtained in England, 

 from the coasts of Devon and Cornwall to the 

 mouth of the Tyne. In Scotland two or three have 

 been killed ; one at the mouth of the Clyde, in the 

 first year's plumage, is possessed by the Edinburgh 

 Museum ; and a second, also in the same collection, 

 was procured by Dr. Neill from some part of the 

 Solway. In Ireland, a single specimen is recorded 

 by Mr. Thompson as shot on the Shannon, in the 

 complete dress of summer. On the Continent it 

 seems also only sparingly distributed, and as if 

 having strayed; but it is stated by Prof. Nillson 

 that it breeds in the marshes in the vicinity of the 

 Baltic and in Gothland. 



" In summer the whole of the head and upper 

 part of the neck become black ; the white of the 



