LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 181 



second specimen, now in the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of 

 Arts and Sciences, was shot by Mr. Eobert L. Peavey in a flock of 

 Bonaparte's gulls at Rockaway Beach, Long Island, on May 10, 

 1902, and recorded by Braislin (1903). The last recorded specimen 

 is one taken at Pine Point, Scarborough, Maine, on July 20, 1910, 

 that fortunately fell into the hands of Mr. Arthur H. Norton (1910), 

 who has also brought together all the evidence for its occurence in 

 America. 



Nesting. — In the neighborhood of the Baltic this gull breeds in 

 marshes and nests on grassy knolls and floating islets of tangled 

 plants. The nest is made of leaves and grass. Three eggs consti- 

 tute a set, although sometimes four and rarely five are laid. The 

 eggs vary in color from yellowish-brown and olive brown to greenish- 

 gray, marked with spots and blotches of reddish brown and gray. 

 They are considerably smaller than those of the Bonaparte's gull 

 and measure 1.66 by 1.25 inches Meves, quoted by Dresser (1871), 

 says that both the nest and eggs resemble closely those of Sterna 

 hirundo that nested among them. He found, however, that the yolk 

 of the little gull's egg was of an orange-red color, while that of the 

 common tern was ocher-yellow. Both parents incubate. 



Plumages. — In the juvenal plumage the upper parts are mottled 

 with dark brown, and there is a band of the same color at the tip of 

 the tail; the bill is blackish and the feet yellow. In the adult 

 nuptial dress this bird, like the Bonaparte's gull, has a black hood. 

 The mantle is pale gray, the underparts suffused with pink. The 

 primaries are tipped with white, dark below; bill reddish brown, 

 feet vermillion. The adult in winter loses the black hood and the 

 head and neck are white, brownish gray on the occiput; there is a 

 dusky spot in the auricular region. In many ways it resembles 

 Bonaparte's gull, but lacks the broad black anterior and posterior 

 margin to the wings. Norton (1910) sums "p the distinctive marks 

 of its plumage as follows : 



The adults are distinguished at once by the broad white posterior border 

 of the wing without black, the pale pearl gray mantle, and the slaty lower 

 surface of the wings. The young, by the inner vanes of the outer primaries 

 being chiefly white ; the inner primaries with both webs gray, their tips white, 

 the white increasing in length as it proceeds in, and without black subterminal 

 areas. Moreover, it is the smallest known gull. 



Food.— Dresser (1871) quotes Meves as to their feeding habits, as 

 follows : 



I found in the stomachs of many of the little gulls I examined not only in- 

 sects but chiefly small fishes, which they are continually catching in the lake. 

 Very few had insects in their stomachs ; but it is probable that later, when the 

 Neuroptera, Phryganiae, and Ephemera are more abundant, they feed on these 

 in preference, as is the case with the black-headed gull (Lams ridibundus) . 

 Others have found Neuroptera in their stomachs. 



