664 LITTLE GULL. 
recorded (once in May) from the Border to the Shetlands. To 
Treland it is an infrequent visitor in autumn and winter. 
The Little Gull wandered to the Feeroes in February 1886, and has 
occasionally visited the south of Norway; but, according to Nilsson, 
it formerly bred in Gottland, and occurs annually on the coasts and 
islands of the Baltic. Its nearest nesting-places are now probably 
those in the morasses of Esthonia, and between Lake Ladoga and 
Archangel; but large colonies are to be found among the swamps of 
the Ural, and the bird remains until somewhat late in spring in 
Southern Russia and the Black Sea district, though not known to 
breed there. On migration and in winter it visits the inland waters 
and the coasts of Europe down to the Mediterranean, as well as the 
northern shores of Africa from Morocco to Egypt. In summer it is 
found across temperate Asia to the Sea of Okhotsk ; but, with the 
exception of a bird shot by Col. Irby in Oudh in January 1859, it 
has not been recorded from India. An immature example was 
obtained on Long Island, New York State, about September 15th 
1887 (Auk 1888, p. 171). 
The late W. Meves of Stockholm, who found a large colony of 
“Schieks ”—as the Russians call the Little Gulls—near Lake 
Ladoga, described the nests as being placed on almost floating islets 
of tangled plants, and built of leaves and grass. The eggs, usually 
3 but occasionally 4 in number, are olive-green or brownish, 
rather minutely spotted and sparsely blotched with umber : measure- 
ments 1°65 by 11 in. Both parents incubate. The stomachs of 
the birds examined by Meves contained chiefly small fish, insects 
being found only in a few. 
The adult in summer (figured in the foreground) has the head 
and upper neck deep black ; mantle pale grey ; primaries grey, broadly 
edged with white and devoid of dark bars; the under-side of the 
wing black—a conspicuous characteristic when the bird is flying ; 
neck and tail white; breast and belly pinkish-white ; bill reddish- 
brown ; legs and feet vermilion. In winter the head is white, more 
or less streaked with ash-colour on the nape, as shown in the hinder- 
most figure. Length r1in., wing 8°75 in. A young bird (the central 
figure), shot in November, had the upper parts mottled with dark 
brown, and a band of the same colour at the tip of the tail; 
primaries sooty on both webs next the shafts and white on the 
remainder of the inner webs ; under-wing white; bill blackish ; feet 
yellowish-pink. The nape becomes dark grey the first spring, but 
the dark markings on the shoulders and tail remain till after the 
second moult. Mr. J. H. Gurney has recorded a white variety. 
