2502 The Zoologist — March, 1871. 



numbers,* and there also the same wholesale slaughter awaited 

 them as on our own inhospitable coast. Mr. Cordeaux (Zool. S. S. 

 2081), on the authority of Mr. Richardson, of Beverley, states that 

 twenty-nine little gulls, nineteen adult and ten immature birds, 

 were shot near Bridlington early in February, and these, from 

 Mr. Boynton's statement in the ' Field' of February 26th, seem to 

 have appeared simultaneously with the large numbers that visited 

 Norfolk, and were driven in by the same severe easterly gales. 



The few specimens of this gull which in previous years have 

 been procured in Norfolk have appeared both in autumn and 

 winter, from August to the end of January; but, extraordinary as 

 was the influx on this occasion, it was attributable, I think, far 

 more to accidental circumstances than to any unusual abundance 

 of the species during the previous nesting season. With gulls, as 

 with most wild-fowl, the young birds arc more accessible, and, as a 

 rule, are procurable earlier in the season than the old ones, which 

 are "driven in" only by stormy or frosty weather. Thus the three 

 immature birds shot in December and January represented the 

 ordinary stragglers from the main body of migrants, which, pro- 

 bably in most seasons, disport themselves off our northern coasts, 

 and, regulating their movements by the mildness or severity of the 

 weather, pass on, almost unnoticed, to more southern quarters. 

 The eggs of this species have been lately received by Mr. Dresser 

 from Lake Ladoga, where they nest in great numbers ; and, as at 

 present, 1 believe, it is not known to breed anywhere further to the . 

 north or west, we may presume that those which, in autumn and 

 winter, appear upon the coast of Great Britain, form part of that 

 colony, and that, migrating in a westerly rather than a southerly 

 direction, they have passed from the Baltic into the North Sea. In 

 this instance, however, the main body of them appear to have been 

 suddenly driven by the irresistible force of the gale upon our 

 shores and estuaries, and thus afforded a chance to our local 

 collectors, -which, except under similar circumstances, may not 

 occur again. 



• The few notes of the occun-enee of sti-agglers in other parts of England are only 

 such as are ordiuaril}' met with during the autumn and winter mouths. An unusual 

 numher of these gulls were shot at Bridlington, Filey and Flamborough, on the 

 Yorkshii-e coast, in October, 18G8, as recorded by Mr. J. H. Guriiey, jun., in the 

 ' Zoologist ' for that year, but at that time I believe only one specimen was procured 

 in Norfolk. 



