420 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



numbers of the Lesser Tern that breed upon our coast are to some 

 extent recruited by birds from other districts, and immature 

 birds occur on the higher salt marshes, from which at other 

 times they are conspicuously absent. I have never, however, 

 observed the Lesser Tern after September. It comes and 

 departs earlier than the Common Tern. 



Order GA VIM. Sub-fam. LAR1NM. 



LITTLE GULL. 



Larus minutus, Pall. 



The Little Gull is a much rarer bird on the coast of the 

 N.W. of England than on our southern and eastern sea-boards. 

 It occurs however as an occasional straggler to the waters of 

 Morecambe Bay and the Solway Firth. Dr. Gough mentions 

 in his private notes that a specimen was found dead in a field 

 at Low Meathop, on the 3d of February 1870. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Solway Firth this bird appears to have been 

 taken in all plumages. Thus the collection of Messrs. Mann 

 includes two specimens, both in the pretty dress worn by the 

 young in their first winter. The most recently obtained of 

 these was killed near Allonby on the 6th of February 1889. 

 The fellow-bird was shot near Silloth some few years before. 

 Mr. Eichard Mann has seen one or two other specimens in his 

 neighbourhood, as, for example, a bird observed in company 

 with some Black-headed Gulls, on March 30th, 1889. Mr. W. 

 Duckworth observed two Little Gulls in company with a flock 

 of Black-headed Gulls near Ulverston in the early spring of 

 1889. Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson purchased from the late Sam 

 Watson an old bird in full winter dress, shot near Bowness on 

 Solway. George Dawson has an adult in summer plumage, 

 killed in the last-named district in the summer of 1886. I have 

 never seen the Little Gull on this coast myself, but Messrs. 

 Law and Nicol believe that they have seen several Little Gulls 

 in different autumns while engaged in fishing. 



