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BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND. 
Sub-family LARINjE. 
KITTIWAKE. Rissa tridactyla* (Linnaeus). 
Of accidental occurrence in spring and autumn. — Mr. Babington (Supplement 
‘ Potter ’) recorded its occurrence at Bardon, and Harley wrote “ Occurred on 
the Soar, 1854, also on Oroby Pool and elsewhere in the county.” A mounted 
specimen presented to the Museum by Mr. H. J. Bellairs on 7th June, 1852, is 
noted in the Donation-book as having been found dead at Evington ; another is 
noted, under date 9th March, 1861, as having been “shot at Upton”; a third 
(purchased for the Museum) was found dead in the Abbey Meadow on 7th 
February, 1881, and a fourth (also purchased for the Museum) was obtained at 
Melton Mowbray in 1881. Mr. Macaulay mentions one shot at Gumley on 3rd 
January, 1880, and another — an adult female in winter dress, — which is now in the 
Leicester Museum, shot by IMr. Thomas Aulay Macaulay on Saddington Eeservoir, 
15th September, 1881. Mr. Davenport says two immature specimens were shot 
at Ashlands in September, 1881, and that he shot another, fully mature, flying 
over the house at Ashlands, some time in 1886. I saw an adult specimen, in the 
hands of Pinchen, which was shot at Braunstone on 14th April, 1888, by a man 
named Kitchen. 
In Rutland. — Has doubtless occurred, but I have no exact record, it not 
having been discriminated from the Common Gull. 
I.ESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. Larus fuscus, Linnaius. 
A rare straggler from the coast. — The late Rev. Arthur Evans recorded, in his 
notes, the occurrence of a specimen on Groby Pool in 1850. In the autumn of 
1880 I saw an adult specimen, said to be from Bradgate, in the hands of a man 
named Donnell. The Leicester Museum purchased an immature specimen shot at 
Somerby in 1880, and another, also immature, shot at Melton in 1881. 
COMMON GULL. Larus canus, Linnaeus. 
Of accidental occurrence, especially after stormy weather oh the east coast. 
— Mr. Babington (Appendix ‘ Potter,’ p. 70) said : — “ Often seen and shot ; flocks of 
Gulls, probably L. rissa as well as this, frequently fly over Thringstone after violent 
storms. None, except the Common Gull, have fallen into my hands.” 
I am sorry I cannot endorse this statement, none but Kittiwakes having 
come into my hands. Harley and Mr. Macaulay only generalize, neither of them 
giving any deflnite data, nor differentiating it from the far commoner Kittiwake, 
and Harley makes “ confusion worse confounded ” by calling it the Gh'ey Gull, a 
term often applied to the Herring-Gull, and, by nearly all shore shooters who are 
not ornithologists, to the immature stages of several of the larger Gulls. At 
* Hind toe absent (“ tridactyla which distinguishes it from other Gulls. 
