586 LARID^. 



Bonaparte's Gull is widely distributed throughout North 

 America, from the Arctic regions in summer, down to the 

 Southern States and the Bermudas, on migration. Dr. 

 Elliott Coues remarks that this species begins to arrive 

 on the Carolina coast in September, and stays a month or 

 so, but none pass the entire winter there. Audubon says 

 that it is very abundant in winter on the coast of Florida. 

 With the first genial weather in April, and throughout the 

 greater part of May, there is a succession of birds passing 

 northwards ; the earlier ones being adults, while the later 

 arrivals are young of the previous year. It is not known to 

 breed within the boundaries of the United States, but Dr. 

 Coues saw a great many in Labrador and about the mouth 

 of the St. Lawrence, at a time of year which rendered it 

 probable that they bred at no great distance. As regards 

 British North America, Richardson (' Boat Voyage,' i. p. 

 200) says : " One of the birds we traced up to its breeding- 

 places on Great Bear Lake, but not to the [Arctic] sea-coast, 

 is the pretty little Bonapartean Gull. This species arrives 

 very early in the season, before the ground is denuded of 

 snow, and seeks its food in the first pools of water which 

 form on the borders of Great Bear Lake, and wherein it 

 finds multitudes of minute crustacean animals and larvae of 

 insects. It flies in flocks, and builds its nests in a colony 

 resembling a rookery, seven or eight on a tree ; the nests 

 being framed of sticks, laid flatly. Its voice and mode of 

 flying are like those of a Tern ; and, like that bird, it rushes 

 fiercely at the head of any one 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 be often seen standing gracefully on a 

 summit of a small spruce fir." Its breeding-grounds extend 

 over the greater part of Arctic America, and eggs obtained by 

 the late Mr. MacFarlane at Anderson-River Fort have been 

 received by the Smithsonian Institution. One, figured by 

 Prof. Newton (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 57, pi. iv. fig. 6), measures 

 1-8 by 1-29 in. ; its colour is greenish-buff" blotched and 

 zoned with dark brown. Mr. E. W. Nelson says that this 



