274 Roserts, Nesting Habits of Franklin’s Gull. ay 
seems to be due chiefly to an inherent fickleness on the part of 
the bird. This Heron Lake colony moves about from place to 
place, sometimes in the Upper Lake, sometimes in the Lower 
Lake, choosing locations in different years that may be miles 
apart, and varying to some extent in character. 
Preston found them in 1886 at the extreme lower end of the 
lake, within sound and in plain sight of the village. In 1892 
they settled on a spot further up the lake and close to the 
Herony. Here they built their nests among the standing bull- 
rushes fringing the open water, and a sudden rise in the level of 
the lake in early June broke most of their nests from their 
moorings, and they were carried by heavy winds out: into open 
water and destroyed. The following year a location was selected 
close by the scene of this disaster, but considerably further in 
shore where the water was not over two feet deep and the growth 
of grass, flags and rushes, rank and thick, and so matted and 
bent by the snows of many winters that a safe and lasting harbor 
was insured. Here I visited them May 21 and 22 with Thomas 
Miller as guide, and found the nests of this colony of some two 
or three thousand Gulls placed so closely together that a dozen 
or more could easily be reached at one time from a small skiff 
forced in almost anywhere among them. While most of the nests 
were well built of reeds and rush stems, many of the birds had 
taken advantage of the secure and elevated foundations afforded 
by the broken down and matted vegetation to deposit their eggs 
in very indifferently put together nests. In this inside position, 
affording such good cover and so easily accessible from land, the 
birds were exposed to much annoyance by egg-hunting marauders, 
especially mink, judging from the number of despoiled nests 
observed. 
After an unsuccessful attempt to find the Gulls in 1898, word 
came in May of the following year that they were once more at 
their old quarters and, equipped with photographic outfit and 
accompanied by Mr. Dart, the writer arrived at Heron Lake on 
the 12th of June. On the 16th we made our way in small hunt- 
ing boats to the nesting ground, which on this occasion these 
fickle birds had chanced to locate some four or five miles from 
any available embarking point. Nota Gull was to be seen until 
