THE BONAPARTE GULL. 477 



on objects along the shore, and often rides down the cur- 

 rent on floating bits of board, sometimes ten or a dozen 

 standing closely side by side in a row. Then they utter an 

 occasional soft conversational note, as if quietly enjoying 

 each other's company, and affording a most beautiful and 

 instructive picture of happy contentedness. Not infre- 

 quently they swim, or rather float, literally 07i the water, 

 their light forms scarcely pressing below the surface. The 

 harmony and effect of their chaste colors, in such pleasing 

 contrast, when compared with the bright green tints of our 

 beautiful river, are strikingly elegant; and never is the Ni- 

 agara so charming as when ornamented with clouds of 

 these gentle, graceful, little creatures. The immature birds, 

 some of which spend the summer on St. Clair Flats, linger 

 here some time after those in mature plumage have gone 

 northward. Some light has lately been thrown on the nid- 

 ification of this species, a matter on which the books have 

 heretofore been almost silent; notwithstanding the common- 

 ness of the bird on the sea-coast and in the interior during 

 the migrations. The annual report of the Canadian gov- 

 ernment for the Department of the Interior, issued 1880, 

 gives Gull Lake, north of Cypress Hill and Bullrush Lake, 

 as localities where this Gull breeds commonly; and Mr. 

 Fortiscue reports it as breeding on Hudson's Bay. 



It was the ISth of October last (1883), that the fall flight 

 of Ducks fairly set in on the Niagara. The ripe brilliancy of 

 our autumn scenery had just reached its climax. The 

 groves on Grand Island were like bright bouquets of many 

 colors. The top of the large soft maple, under which I had 

 placed my tent on Buckhorn Island, seemed like a crimson 

 flame; and it was surrounded by every shade of scarlet, 

 orange, amber, and gold, and even the rich green of sum- 



