552 THE BONAPARTE GULL. 
Nesting:— Net known to breed in Ohio. Nest, of grasses, moss, etc., on the 
ground. Eggs, 2 or 3, dull bluish white to brown or clay -color, spotted distinctly 
with deep brown and obscurely with lilac. Av. size, 2.40 x 1.70 (61. x 43.2). 
General Range.—North America at large; south in winter to Cuba and 
Mexico. 
Range in Ohio.—Perhaps not uncommon migrant on Lake Erie; possibly 
former summer resident; rare migrant elsewhere. 
NOTHING has been added to our knowledge of this Gull since Dr. 
Wheaton’s time, and indeed its numbers must have greatly decreased since 
he wrote of it: “Common spring and fall migrant, perhaps formerly sum- 
mer resident on Lake Erie.” No recent list makes mention of it, and Pro- 
fessor Jones has never seen it along the Lake Erie shore. 
The Ring-billed Gull has much the habit and appearance of the Herring 
Gull, but when the two species appear together, it may be readily distin- 
guished by its smaller size. While its principal diet consists of fish and the 
flotsam of the tide, it is said occasionally to vary its fare by feeding upon 
insects and land molluscs. Dr. J. A. Allen reports that during a visit to Salt 
Lake Valley, where they breed abundantly, he saw them repeatedly sub- 
sisting upon grasshoppers, of which they caught enormous numbers; not as 
might be supposed, by walking about upon the ground, but by hawking at 
them in the air. 
No. 264. 
BONAPARTE GULE. 
A. O. U. No. 60. Larus philadelphia (Ord). 
Description.—Adult in summer: Head including throat blackish slate, 
mantle pearl-gray; primaries extensively white, the first six with black terminal 
portions, the third to sixth, in addition, narrowly tipped with white; the first 
quill with outer web and tip black, the second and third altogether white with 
black tips, the fourth white on outer web, pearl-gray on inner web, with touch 
of white at extremity of terminal black, effecting the transition to the nearly uni- 
form basal pearl-gray of inner primaries; remaining ynaee pure white, the 
under parts more or less flushed with pale rosy; bill jet black; feet and legs rich 
orange-red; feathering of eyelids white posteriorly, the skin carmine. Adult m 
winter: Without the black hood; a dab of slate behind the ear and another before 
the eye, with a plumbeous suffusion of occiput instead; rosy tint of under parts 
wanting; bill lighter basally, and feet pale flesh-color. Immature: Like adult 
in winter, but plumbeous suffusion of hind-head more extensive and tinged with 
brownish; the pearl-gray of mantle less distinct and varied by brownish gray; 
lesser wing-coverts and inner tertials mostly brownish gray; primaries mostly 
blackish on exposed outer webs, where the adult is white, and white on outer 
