62 



BULLETIN 292, TJ. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



October 4-5, 1899 (Bishop); southwestern British Columbia, aver- 

 age November 5, latest November 29, 1888; and Klamath Lake, 

 Oreg., November 7, 1909 (Lewis). 



[LITTLE GULL. Larus minutus Pallas. 



The little gull is only a straggler in North. America. Its regular summer home is 

 in northern Europe and northern Asia, whence it retires in winter as far south as the 

 Mediterranean and the Adriatic. It is found at this latter season in northern Africa 

 and in northern India. Its claim to a place in the North American list rests on a few 

 specimens taken at widely separated times and places: Bermuda, January 22, 1849, 

 and one in February, 1849 (Wedderburn); Fire Island, Long Island, one about 



September 15, 1887 (Dutcher); 

 Rockaway Beach, Long Island, 

 one May 10, 1902 (Braislin); and 

 Pine Point, Scarborough, Me., one 

 July 20, 1910 (Norton).] 



ROSS'S GULL. Rhodostethia 

 rosea (Macgillivkay). 



Range. — Arctic regions of 

 both hemispheres in sum- 

 mer; winter home unknown. 



The first eggs known to 

 science of Ross's gull were 

 taken June 13, 1905, at 

 Pokhodskoe, near the center 

 of the delta of the Kolyma 

 River, Siberia (Butiuiin) . 

 They were already incu- 

 bated, but incubation could 

 not have been far advanced, 

 for the first arrival, a single 

 bird, was not seen until 

 May 30, though the species 



Fig. 29.— Little gull {Larus minutus). i„ „, „„ +i, ^ „ j. 



8 became common the next 



day. Eggs nearly hatched were collected June 26, and young 2 to 

 3 days old on July 1. Eggs were also taken June 13 at Malaya, 

 about 150 miles to the westward of Pokhodskoe. The birds were 

 equally common in this region in 1911 and nested in large num- 

 bers in swamps north of the town of Nijni Kolymsk, in the upper 

 part of the delta, latitude 68° N., longitude 161° 30' E. The next 

 season the whole coast was searched, from these swamps to the 

 northern end of the delta and along the Arctic coast eastward for 

 150 miles to Chaun Bay, but not a breeding colony could be found; 

 one stray individual was taken May 3, 1912, at Nijni Kolymsk (Thayer 

 and Bangs). 



