292 
THE LITTLE GULL. 
prevails in a less degree as they increase in length ; 
upper and under tail-coverts white." 
The plumage of the winter, or its range during 
that season, are not known. 
The Little Gull, Lakus minutus, Pallas . — 
L. minutus, Pall., Gmel. — Chroiocephalus minutus, 
Eyton. — Xema minuta, Gould. — Mouette pygm&e, 
Tcmm. — Little Gull of British authors. — This beau- 
tiful little species is also a rare bird, and neither its 
breeding stations nor its true winter localities are 
yet correctly traced. We are indebted to Colonel 
Montagu for the first notico of it, from a young 
specimen shot near Chelsea. Since that period 
various specimens have been obtained in England, 
from the coasts of Devon and Cornwall to the 
mouth of the Tyne. Iu Scotland two or three have 
been killed ; one at the mouth of the Clyde, in the 
first year’s plumage, is possessed by the Edinburgh 
Museum ; and a second, also in the same collection, 
was procured by Dr. Neill from some part of the 
Solway. In Ireland, a single specimen is recorded 
by Mr. Thompson as shot on the Shannon, in the 
complete dress of summer. On the Continent it 
seems also only sparingly distributed, and as if 
having strayed ; but it is stated by Prof. Nillson 
that it breeds in the marshes in the vicinity of the 
Baltic and in Gothland. 
“ In summer the whole of the head and upper 
part of the neck become black ; the white of the 
