THe WHiITE-WINGED FLEET 
came tolour, cars, and we. could see hundreds of 
the Gulls in the air out over the middle of the lake. 
By the time the others had pitched camp in the 
timber our young guide and I had secured a boat, 
of which he knew, and we all sallied out, poling 
through the grass. We passed various Coots’ nests 
and hovering parties of Black Terns, when about 
quarter of a mile out, crossing a wide lane of open 
water, we approached a tract of the long, coarse 
grass growing out of four or five feet of water, 
where the colony began. Not a great many Gulls 
had been in sight, but now they began to rise from 
the grass, hundreds upon hundreds of them, yes, 
thousands. ‘The clamor of the nearer ones started 
those farther along, and even away off in the dis- 
tance we could see clouds of fluttering white wings. 
The nearer ones immediately came toward us, and 
hovered screaming over our heads. The scene, as 
far as number of birds was concerned, was the 
only one I have 
witnessed that 
could rival Bird 
Rock. At times 
part of the mul- 
titude would 
come together in 
an unusually 
compact mass, 
and circle about 
us ““HERE WERE THE NESTS, RUDE FLOATING PLATFORMS 
OF DEAD GRASS STEMS.”’ NEST OF FRANKLIN’S GULL 
leTresiwieric 
the nests, rude floating platforms of dead grass 
stems, only slightiy hollowed, a few feet or 
161 
