Franklin's Gull 125 



Now that these billowy western prairies are teeming with settlers, there are 

 thousands of farmers who know well this beautiful bird. No wonder that it 

 is popular. Its tameness and familiarity are delightful, especially to those who 

 live remote from neighbors of their own kind. Its al)undance, too, in some places, 

 is picturesque and sj)ectacular. In the cold days of a Dakota spring, I have 

 seen the air alive with them, as they settled like a snowy blanket upon the dark 

 plowing. 



Another fact which should mark it as one of our notably valuable species 

 is that it is largely insectivorous. When in flocks they follow the plow, they are 

 eagerly eating the grubs and cutworms exposed to view. Or, alighting on the 

 prairie sward, they are busy devouring grasshoppers, locusts, and whatever 

 insects come in their way. I have often watched them chasing and catching 

 insects awing, darting about like swallows, either low over the marshes or well 

 up aloft. In a nesting colony in Minnesota, Dr. T. S. Roberts found that the 

 young were fed almost wholly on insects. The stomach of one specimen examined 

 contained remains of fifteen kinds of insects, several of which were notably 

 injurious to man. Most of their food, at this time, consisted of the nymphs of 

 dragon-flies, of which one stomach e.xamined contained 327. Like all other 

 Gulls, they will, when opportunity offers, eat the eggs of other birds, as I once 

 saw one do in a Grebe colony. This, however, was partly my fault, as I had 

 frightened the Grebes from their nests before they had time to cover their eggs 

 as usual, and thus put extra temptation in the Gulls' way. Yet there can be 

 no question but that the western farmer's 'Prairie Doves' are among his most 

 useful, as well as beautiful, aUies. 



Another attractive element in this bird is its restlessness and mysteriousness. 

 It is nearly always on the move. Faintly come the cries as of a distant flock of 

 Wild Geese or a pack of hounds. Louder and louder grow the voices, and pres- 

 ently the undulating line appears. Leisurely, yet steadily, it sweeps by, and soon 

 vanishes in the distance, whither bound who can tell? Often have I longed to 

 follow and learn their secret. But wherever I might drive with the bronchos and 

 buckboard, I would see their lines still on the move. Where there is a marshy 

 lake, they may often be seen, at times in large numbers, hovering over the rushes 

 or canes, throwing up their wings to settle down, presently to come fluttering 

 up again, parties frequently departing to straggle over the prairie, and other 

 parties arriving, probably passing to and from their distant breeding-ground. 



Each spring, in May, all the Franklin's Gulls of a wide region somehow 

 agree to resort to a particular one of the various marshy lakes for the purpose 

 of rearing their young. Just how they decide the important question is not for 

 us to know. At any rate, what they do select is a great area of grass, reeds, or 

 rushes, growing out of the water, and there, out of the abundance of dry stems, 

 each pair builds a partly floating nest, side by side with others, thou.sands of 

 them. These great cities of the Franklin's Gull present one of the most spectac- 

 ular sights of bird-life on our continent, comparable, in a way, to the former 



