The Little Gull. 65 



Family— LAR1D/E. Subfamily— LARINA1. 



The Little Gull. 



Larus minutus, PALL. 



THE Little Gull — which is the smallest of all the Gulls — is, notwithstanding 

 the goodly number of records of its occurrences from various parts of 

 the country, a comparatively rare bird in the British Islands. Almost every 

 year, however, one or two specimens reach our shores.* 



It was first recognized as a British species in 1813, by the astute ornithologist, 

 whose name we have already more than once mentioned — Colonel Montagu, who 

 described it in an appendix to the Supplement to his " Ornithological Dictionary." 

 "This is another bird," he writes, with much apparent satisfaction, "which has 

 fallen to our lot to record in the British Fauna. It was shot on the Thames 

 near Chelsea." 



The Little Gull visits our shores only on passage to and from its breeding 

 stations, which lie to our north and east, and appears, as a rule, in little flocks, 

 generally on the eastern coasts, mainly of England, although it has been taken 

 in Ireland on several occasions, and more rarely in Scotland. The bird is more 

 common in Eastern Europe. Its breeding haunts are lakes and marshes across 

 Northern Europe and Asia, between the arctic circle and the 55th parallel of north 

 latitude ; but it does not enter China. When the breeding season is over, the 

 Little Gulls migrate for the winter south-westward (a course which brings them 

 against our eastern coasts of Northumberland, Yorkshire and Norfolk, on their way 

 still further south), and southward as far as the Mediterranean and the Caspian. f 



The male and female are alike in size and plumage. In their breeding 

 dress, they have a deep black hood, sharply defined from the lower parts ; the 

 hind neck, the mantle (which has a flush of pearl- grey), the rump, upper tail- 

 coverts and tail are pure white ; the throat and entire under surface rich pinky- 

 white ; the back, scapulars, upper wing-coverts and wings delicate lavender-grey ; 



* A remarkable influx of Little Gulls occurred on the East Coast, in February, 1870; at least sixty indi- 

 viduals were killed in Norfolk in that month (cf " Birds of Norfolk, vol. iii., p. 321). — H.A.M. 



t Tits majority of the Little Gulls which are obtained on the British coasts prove to be in the plumage 

 of the first winter; birds in nest dress are of rare occurrence on our shores. But we have handled specimens 

 killed in Britain, in almost every month of the year, and their plumage varied according to the season. — H.A.M. 



Vol. VI. L 



