Franklin's Gull 127 



nests at our feet, rude platforms of dead reed-stems, built up from the water 

 among the reeds, which now had a fresh growth as yet only waist high, and 

 thus were not tall enough to impede the view. The eggs were in twos and 

 threes, dark drab in hue, and heavily marked with black. It seemed as though 

 the whole colony must l>c awing, yet at almost every step new multitudes were 

 startled and rose with tragic >c reams. In every direction we were encompassed 

 by thousands upon thousands of m reaming, indignant, outraged l)ir(ls. Those 

 whose nests were at our feet darted at our heads with reckless aljandon. Most 

 of the eggs had evidently been laid by the last week of May, and a few had 

 already hatched. The birds were quite tame, and when we remained still for 

 a time they would settle u])on their nests within a dozen or fifteen feet of us. 

 Thev were too modest, though, to incubate in our presence, but stood up till 

 we withdrew. 



The location chosen I)}- this assemblage was amid a denser growth and in 

 less water than is often the case. The North Dakota colony I found nesting in 

 quite open water, of no less depth than up to one's neck, requiring a boat to reach 

 it. Instead of reeds, a rather sparse growth of meadow grass furnished the sup- 

 port and anchorage for the nests. This was practically the condition of affairs 

 encountered by Dr. Roberts in his Minnesota colony, except that this one was 

 on the edge of a wide expanse of entirely open water, the level of the lake having 

 been raised bv heavy rains, apparently after the nests were constructed. The 

 young would swim out from the protecting reeds, when the wind would catch 

 them and begin to blow them out into the rough open water, where they would 

 doubtless perish. The old birds would try to compel them to swim back,which 

 they were unable to do. Failing in this, they would lay hold of the youngsters 

 with their bills and drag or hurl them back to their nests, sometimes wounded 

 and bleeding. Dr. Roberts also confirms my experience, and that of Mr. Bent, — 

 who found this Saskatchewan breeding-ground abandoned the following season, — 

 that these Gulls change their site from year to year, consistently with their 

 generally fickle, roving character. They are inclined to alternate between sev- 

 eial attractive locations, and return to a former favorite location in course of 

 time. 



With the waning of July the life of these "White Cities" also wanes. The 

 nights grow sharp and chill, the frosts coat the sloughs with incipient ice, and 

 the setder must bid adieu, for a time, to his companionable 'Doves.' Like sail- 

 ing-craft running free before the onslaughts of Boreas, they carelessly wander 

 onward, to spend their "winter" where winter is but a memory, with choice 

 variety of insect life for daily fare. And when, at length, the northern prairie 

 lakes and sloughs are unlocked from their icy bonds, and the 'Prairie Pigeons'' 

 once more course the long deserted expanses, many a human heart is glad. 

 Never may heartless fashion dare to wrong the western farmers and the multi- 

 tudes who look to him for bread by seeking to appropriate the lone settler's pet — 

 a species important among the feathered custodians of the nation's granaries. 



