484 NATATORES. LARUS. GULL. 



interior of the country, where they form their nests in the 

 reeds and other aquatic herbage. In the Kittiwake an ap- 

 proach to the Petrils is perceptible in the imperfect develop- 

 ment of the hind toe, and in the decidedly oceanic habits of 

 the bird. 



LITTLE GULL. 



LARUS MINUTUS, Pall. 

 PLATE XCII. 



Lams minutus, Pall. Reise, 3. 702. No. 35 Gmel. Sysl. 1. 595 Steph. 



Shaw's Zool. 13. 206 Flem. Br. Anim. 1. 142. No. 2. Straggler. 

 Larus atricilloides, Gmel. Syst. 1. 601 Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 813. 

 Mouette Pygme'e, Temm. Man. d'Orn. 2. 787. 

 Die Kleine Meve, Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 2. 488. 

 Little Gull, Lath. Syn. 6. 391. 17 Mont. Ornith. Diet, and Sup. App. to 



Sup.- Shaw's Zool. 13. 206 BewicVs Br. Birds, ed. 1826, p. 226. 



Occasional THE Little Gull, as its trivial name leads us to conclude, 

 visitant. - g one o f fa Q sma n es t o f the genus, and was first noticed as 

 an occasional visitant to the British coasts by MONTAGU, 

 who, in the Appendix to the Supplement of his Ornithologi- 

 cal Dictionary, has accurately described and given a figure 

 of an individual that was killed upon the Thames near to 

 Chelsea, but in an immature state of plumage, being that ac- 

 quired at the first autumnal moult. Since that time other 

 instances have occurred at different seasons, so as to exhibit 

 it when arrived at maturity, both in the winter and summer 

 plumage ; and, to put us in possession of all the changes it 

 undergoes, a bird of the year in its first plumage, and pre- 

 vious to the autumnal moult, was killed upon the Frith of 

 Clyde, of which the second figure on the plate is a represen- 

 tation. This specimen, now in the Edinburgh College Mu- 

 seum, was at first ticketed as the Gull-billed Tern, but the 

 error was subsequently discovered, and the nomenclature 

 corrected. 



