RARER BRITISH BIRDS. 61 



LITTLE GULL. 



Chroicocephalus Minutus. PALLAS. 



A SLIGHT notice of this bird only occurs in Bewick's 

 " History of British Birds." This being the case, therefore, 

 and the bird being rather an interesting one, as the smallest of 

 our British Gulls, we have ventured to give some further account 

 of it, together with a woodcut. Montagu, in the appendix to 

 his " Ornithological Dictionary," gives an etching of this spe- 

 cies, together with the first account, that we are aware of, of its 

 occurrence in the British isles. The specimen he inspected was 

 one in an immature state of plumage, killed near Chelsea, on 

 the Thames, and was then in the collection of Mr. Plasted of 

 that place. Since the time of Montagu, however, other speci- 

 mens have occurred, so as leave no doubt of its title to a place 

 in the British Fauna. 



The Little Gull, in its adult winter dress, has the under 

 plumage, forehead, and tail, of a pure white, the former 

 sometimes slightly tinted with rose colour; upper plumage, of 



