530 Laridoo. 



buoyantly on the surface of the sea, gently flapping on powerful 

 wing through the air, or standing quietly, often on one leg, on 

 the beach. Though they float like corks on the waves, they 

 seldom swim and never dive. They may be almost called 

 omnivorous, so welcome to their insatiable appetite is every kind 

 of animal food they can secure. The Little Gull, the smallest 

 of its genus which figures in the British list, and, I believe, of the 

 whole genus, is distinguished in most languages by a name 

 which calls attention to its diminutive figure. In France it is 

 Mouette pygmde ; in Germany, Die kleine Meve ; in Sweden, 

 Dverg-Mdse, or 'Dwarf Gull'; but in Russia, where it is best 

 known, it is honoured with the distinguished title of Scheik. 

 It is by no means a common bird, even on our coasts : but .1 

 have three undoubted instances of its appearance in Wiltshire, 

 as the Rev. G. Marsh had a specimen in his collection which was 

 killed on a pond at Rodbourne in 1848, and sent to him by Mrs. 

 Pollen. The Rev. George Powell informed me that a very good 

 specimen, in winter plumage, was killed in January, 1869, at 

 Upton Scudamore, near Warminster. It was quite alone when 

 discovered, and had doubtless been driven inland by one of the 

 south-westerly gales which prevailed at that period. And a 

 third was picked up dead on March 28, 1870, on Rockley Down, 

 near Marlborough, as I was informed by the Rev. T. A. Preston, 

 who secured the specimen for the admirable museum which was 

 established by his efforts at Marlborough College. The home of 

 this elegant little bird is in Central and Northern Russia and 

 Siberia, where it is said to congregate in immense colonies and 

 to literally swarm in the air a few feet above the surface of the 

 lakes, like Swallows over a river on a summer's evening, or like 

 mosquitoes, which (as some of my readers may know to their 

 cost, or if not, let them take the word of one who has often and 

 in many lands been driven in by their attacks) hover over their 

 favourite pools in countless myriads.* 



* W. H. Simpson in Ibis for 1861, p. 362. 



