BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 199 



The winter of 1869-70 was remarkable for the 

 large number of Little Gulls captured along our 

 eastern seaboard. After a terrific three days' gale 

 from the east on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of February, 

 no less than twenty-nine were shot on the coast near 

 Bridlington ; of these, nineteen were old birds in full 

 winter plumage, and ten young in the immature 

 dress. All these birds were shot a few miles south 

 of Flamborough Head, none occurring north, or in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of the Headland. 



On the 16th of February in the same year Mr. Bond 

 saw eleven specimens of the Little Gull in Leaden- 

 hall Market, eight of them adult (Zoologist, 1870, 

 p. 2066) *. 



258. LARUS RIDIBUNDUS, Linnaeus. Black-headed 



Gull 



Provincial. Pewit Gull. 



This familiar species, the most tern-like of the 

 genus, is the common Gull of the Humber, and 

 more numerous in some seasons than all the rest of 

 our Gulls put together. They have greatly increased 

 in this district during the last ten years. 



numerous feathers sprouting all over the body ; female, by dis- 

 section j hatching-spots very apparent. 



* In a paper which appeared in the l Transactions of the Nor- 

 folk and Norwich Naturalists' Society,' 1870-71, Mr. Stevenson 

 gays that, as far as he can judge, over sixty specimens of this 

 Gull were killed along the Norfolk coast in the month of Feb- 

 ruary 1870. 



