320 BIEDS OP NORFOLK. 



accompanied by examples of Larus minutus, an imma- 

 ture male of this species was killed at Palling, and came 

 into the possession of Mr. Lowne, of Yarmouth, by 

 whom it was preserved for Mr. W. W. Spelman. This 

 Palling bird, which was consorting with lapwings when 

 it was shot, and is in a less mature stage of plumage 

 than Mr. Stevenson's specimen before referred to, is 

 probably a bird of the first year. 



LARUS MINUTUS, Pallas. 

 LITTLE GULL. 



The first mention of the little gull as a Norfolk 

 bird is, I believe, in Messrs. Pagets' list (1834), where 

 they briefly remark that it is "rarely niet with." As 

 the species was originally described and figured as 

 British by Montagu* in the Appendix to his " Ornitho- 

 logical Dictionary," in 1813, of course little could be 

 expected to be known of it on the Norfolk coast at so 

 early a period, but it seems probable from more recent 

 experience that Mr. Lubbock's remarks in 1845, that 

 it " has been found several times within the last three or 

 four years," and the still more explicit statement of 

 Messrs. Gurney and Fisher that "a few specimens are 

 generally obtained every year in their vernal and 

 autumnal migrations," which has been fully substan- 

 tiated of late, would apply with equal force to the earlier 

 date, unless, indeed, this species has deviated from the 

 line of migration formerly pursued by it. Certainly, at 

 the present time, the little gull must be regarded as a 

 regular migrant, more particularly in late autumn, and 

 sometimes occurring in rather considerable numbers. 



The specimen examined by Montagu was shot on the Thames 

 near Chelsea, and belonged to Mr. Plasted, of that place. From 

 him it passed through Leadbeater to the late Mr. Lombe, and 

 with the rest of the Lombe collection it is now in the Norwich 

 Museum. Its plumage shows, as indeed does the figure given 

 by Montagu, that it was a young bird in its first autumn. 



