476 THE BONAPARTE GULL. 



This fresh water, or river Duck, occurring sparingly in the 

 east, is abundant in the west, breeding from Texas to 

 Alaska. 



THE BONAPARTE GULL. 



Here let me mention a very conspicuous and beautiful 

 bird, which appears on the river along with the Ducks in 

 spring and also in the fall — the Bonaparte Gull {Chroicoceph- 

 alus Philadelphia). Some 12-14 inches long, with a bill as 

 slender as that of a Tern, the mantle is an elegant pearly or 

 silvery-gray; head dusky-slate, appearing black in the dis- 

 tance; the eye-lids marked with white; bill, black; neck, under 

 parts, tail and front of the wing, white; the wing having 

 the outer web of the first primary, also the edge of the 

 second or even the third, and the ends of the primaries gen- 

 erally, except the extreme white tips, black; feet, orange. 

 In winter there is no hood, but a gray spot on the side of 

 the head. The young are mottled with brownish or grayish 

 above, having a dark bar on the wing, and a black band on 

 the tail. 



Appearing about the middle of April, this species some- 

 times becomes very abundant for a month or more, fiying 

 leisurely up and down the river in larger or smaller flocks, 

 and subsisting on small fish which they take by dropping 

 lightly on the surface. The flight is easy and graceful, each 

 stroke of the long, pointed wings throwing the body up a 

 little, while the bird peers this way and that way in quest of 

 its small prey. If it fly towards one, the white front of 

 its wings, added to its white breast and neck, gives it the 

 appearance of a white bird with a black head. It often has 

 a noticeable way of turning partly around or cutting back- 

 ward, as it drops down in securing some object suddenly de- 

 tected on or near the surface, thus making it appear decid- 

 edly lithe and agile on the wing. Occasionally it may alight 



