58 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



February, 1848 ; another was shot on Loch Lomond by Sir G. 

 H. Leith Buchanan, in April, 1850; while in England four 

 examples have been chronicled, from Falmouth and Penryn in 

 January, 1865, one from Penzance in October, 1890, and one 

 from St. Leonard's in November, 1870. 



Range outside the British Islands. — Besides the above-mentioned 

 occurrences of Bonaparte's Gull in Great Britain, the species 

 has been recorded once from Heligoland, but this is the only 

 instance of its capture on the Continent of Europe. It is a 

 strictly North American species, breeding in the Fur countries, 

 and migrating in winter on the east as far as Bermuda and 

 Texas and to California on the west, passing south likewise by 

 the inland lakes and rivers. 



Habits. — Sir John Richardson states that this pretty little 

 Gull arrives at its breeding places on Great Bear Lake very 

 early in the season, and before the snow has disappeared. He 

 says : " The voice and mode of flying are like those of a Tern, 

 and like those birds, it rushes fiercely at the head of anyone 

 who intrudes on its haunts, screaming loudly. It has, moreover, 

 the strange practice, considering the form of its feet, of 

 perching on posts and trees, and it may often be seen standing 

 gracefully on the summit of a small spruce fir." Audubon 

 describes how Bonaparte's Gull follows the shoals of fishes, 

 and Mr. E. W. Nelson found the species numerous in flocks on 

 the 19th and 20th of September, along the tide channels near 

 St. Michael's, in Alaska. They were hovering in parties with 

 many Short-billed Gulls, close to the surface of the water, and 

 feeding upon the schools of sticklebacks. 



Nest. — Built, according to Sir John Richardson, in a colony, 

 resembling a rookery, seven or eight in a tree, the nests being 

 formed of sticks laid flatly. 



-Three in number, rarely four. Ground-colour olive- 

 brown, or inclining to dark clay-brown, the spots somewhat 

 reddish-brown, generally distributed over the egg, the under- 

 lying spots being dusky-grey. Sometimes the large end of 

 the egg is crowded with scribbling. Axis, i-75-2-i inches; 

 diam., 1-3-1 "4. 



