THE LITTLE-GULL 151 



evidence of its breeding is not satisfactory, and von Nordmann's state- 

 ment that it nests in the salt lakes in numbers is not accepted by recent 

 writers. S. A. Buturlin only mentions the Moscow, Kazan, Ufa, and 

 Perm governments as Russian breeding-places, in addition to the 

 better-known colonies in the Baltic Provinces, near Archangel and on 

 Lake Ladoga. Here, however, we are on firmer ground : Blasius, 

 Lilljeborg, and Meves have all visited and described the Ladoga 

 colonies, while V. Russow met with three breeding-places in Esthonia, 

 Stoll found a large colony in Livonia, and in 1887 J. A. Sandman 

 found considerable numbers breeding on an islet near Karlo in the 

 Gulf of Bothnia. From here we can trace its spread westward to 

 Gotland and East Sweden (S. Upland and Jemtland, 1901), while in 

 N. Germany Henrici found it breeding on the Drausen-see in 1899 

 (where von Homeyer had obtained a breeding pair in 1847), and it 

 was recorded as nesting at Rossitten in 1902. Its western limits are, 

 however, the islands in the Danish fjords. At Rodby, in Laaland, 

 there seems little doubt that it bred in 1901 ; and at Klaegbanken, in 

 the Ringkjobing Fjord, nests were found in 1904, and it had probably 

 been breeding there for several years previously. Even as far back as 

 the spring of 1893 Chapman saw a couple of pairs only a few miles away 

 from here. The whole of this district is now strictly preserved by the 

 Danish Government, and can only be visited by special permission. 

 Klaegbanken itself is a low flat island of mud and sand, varying in 

 size according to the height of the water in the fjord, and covered 

 with coarse herbage. A strong south-west wind lasting for a day or 

 two will drive the waters of the North Sea up the narrow entrance of 

 the fjord and materially raise the level of the water inside, till a change 

 in the wind allows the water to flow out again. Here, in this desolate 

 region, with nothing to break the horizon but ghostly white houses 

 and clumps of trees, with the tell-tale shimmering streak of light 

 beneath them which shows that they are due to mirage, lie the breed- 

 ing-haunts of thousands of sandwich-terns, blackheaded-gulls, common 

 and Arctic terns, together with a few little-gulls. A few miles away 



