30-2 
LITTLE GULL. 
tion of the limbs would be similar to the adult, in which this bird 
essentially differs. No author, to our knowledge, has described the 
spotted gallinule in its early plumage to be different from that of the 
adult ; and we know that in neither the land-rail, the gallinule, nor 
in the water-rail, which is a bird of similar habits, does any mate- 
rial difference exist between the young and old birds. In fact, the 
plumage and general appearance are so extremely dissimilar to that of 
the spotted gallinule, that if this bird had been exotic, a comparison 
would never have been thought necessary ; but as the species of the 
genus are not numerous, and only three of those known to inhabit this 
country, the subject required scrupulous investigation, especially as no 
such bird appears to have been described by any ornithological writer. 
Another specimen of the Little Gallinule was shot near Ashburton, in 
Devonshire, in the year 1809. Another was shot on the banks of the 
Ware, on the 6th of May, 1807.* 
LITTLE GODWIT.— -A name for the young of the Stone Plover. 
LITTLE GREBE. — A name for the Dabchick. 
LITTLE GULL (Larus minutus, Pallas.) 
^Larus minutus, Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 813 Gmel. Syst. p. 595 — Benichen ann- 
der witter, 3.p. 141 Nov. Act. Stock, 1783. 2. No. 1. p. 120. — Pallas, Reise, 
3. p. 702. 3. — Larus attricillades, Falk, Keise, 3. 355 — Little Gull, Lath. Syn. 6. 
— Temm. Man. d’Orn. 2. 789. — Flem. Br. Anim. 142. p. 391. 17.— La plus 
petite des mouettes, Sonn. — Buff. Ois. 24. p. 288. 
Length rather exceeding ten inches; length of the bill to the feathers 
on the forehead, rather more than three quarters of an inch ; the upper 
mandible straight for half its length from the base, the other half con- 
siderably arcuated; lower mandible straight to the angle, (two-thirds 
of its length from the base,) from whence it slopes to the point ; the 
inside of the mouth red orange. The forehead and crown of the head 
white ; the back of the head and a trifle of the back of the neck con- 
tiguous dark cinereous, with a hoary tinge ; behind the eye a white 
streak ; the lower coverts of the ears black, forming a very conspicuous 
spot of that colour ; between the bill and eye white, but at the anterior 
corner the orbit is black, from whence to the black spot on the ear is a 
mixture of dark cinereous and white ; the whole upper part of the body 
appears of a fine cinereous grey, like that of the herring, and most of 
the lighter coloured gulls, but, upon lifting up the scapulars, the lower 
part of the back is black ; the upper tail-coverts pure white ; except 
three or four feathers of the last series, which are tipped with dusky ; 
the tail is slightly concave at the end, but as there is not a regular gra- 
dation in the length of the feathers, and an evident dissimilarity in the 
two sides, there can be no doubt but that they have been recently 
moulted ; all the feathers are white, with their tips black for nearly an 
