150 THE GULLS 



frequently on our coasts in future years. It is still mainly an East 

 European and Asiatic form at the present time, but during the winter 

 may be met with in fair numbers even in the western Mediterranean. 

 Amongst its favourite winter haunts may be mentioned the lagoons of 

 Tunisia, where it is common, and, as noticed almost everywhere, very 

 tame and confiding in its habits. Many birds seem not to cross the 

 Mediterranean, but to winter round the coasts of Greece and the 

 adjacent islands. Lord Lilford gives the date of their departure from 

 the Ionian Islands as about the beginning of March, but in the Black 

 Sea they seem to remain much later, for Mr. W. H. Simpson (Ibis, 

 1861, p. 362) describes immense numbers as haunting the lagoons 

 north of Kustendji (Constanta) between April 20th and 24th. " The 

 flocks of Larus minutus, associated with a few individuals of Sterna 

 cantiaca, were literally swarming in the air a few feet above the 

 surface of the water, like swallows over a river on a summer's 

 evening. Far as the eye could reach, looking northwards down the 

 lake, these elegant little birds were to be seen on the feed, dashing to 

 and fro most actively. ... A few days later and the thousands have 

 become hundreds ; yet a few days more and these will have dwindled 

 down to tens, so that by the middle of May it is possible that not a 

 pair will remain behind." Probably Simpson's supposition is correct, 

 for when we visited the lagoons of the eastern Dobrodjea in the latter 

 part of May 1911, we saw no trace of this species, though its larger re- 

 lative, the Mediterranean blackheaded-gull, was present in thousands, 

 and just beginning to breed. There is, however, some slight evidence 

 that a pair or two occasionally stay to breed in this region, as so 

 many other northern forms are said to do. Dr. W. H. Cullen sent a 

 skin of this species to Professor Newton, stated to have been shot from 

 a nest with a single egg, on June 5, 1866. 1 R. von Dombrowski also 

 includes it in his list of Roumanian birds as breeding sparingly on 

 Lakes Razim and Sinoe. Confirmation of these records by inde- 

 pendent testimony is, however, very desirable. In South Russia the 



1 Oottiecn Wolleyana, ii. p. 314. 



