Vol. XVII 
1900 
Roperts, Nesting Habits of Frankiin’s Gull. 275 
the nesting site was almost reached. At last a few sentinels 
were sighted and as they announced our approach we rounded a 
final point of rushes into the comparatively open water of the 
upper lake (occasioned by recent floods) and there, spread out 
before us, a half mile distant, lay the object of our long and 
laborious search. 
The surface of the water was everywhere dotted with dark little 
mounds and hundreds upon hundreds of Gulls filled the air above, 
circling round and round or hovering for a moment as they settled 
or rose in their incessant coming and going to and from the nests. 
And now our ears distinctly told us of the proximity of this inter- 
esting spectacle, for even at the distance of half a mile the harsh 
screams and rattling cries of the whirling mass of birds united to 
form a wild uproar that was very plainly audible. As we paddled 
quietly toward the scene of this confusion, and were getting ready 
our weapons for the noiseless attack we expected to make, the 
nearest Gulls soon espied us, and with redoubled outcry passed 
the word to all the rest. And now with one accord, the whole 
colony came streaming toward us—a few in the lead, but hun- 
dreds in the rear — until we were soon surrounded and accom- 
panied the balance of our way by an immense wildly excited escort 
that by every means known to Gulldom, protested against the intru- 
sion and tried in vain to impede our further progress. The fren- 
zied, distressed notes and the furious dashes of the birds as they 
all but struck our heads excited both our pity and our admiration. 
We made first a general reconnoissance of the entire nesting 
site. 
At a distance of about an eighth of a mile from the marshy, 
reed-grown shore, the little floating mounds dotted thickly a great 
crescent-shaped area some three fourths of a mile in length by 
three or four hundred yards in the widest part. The nests were 
irregularly distributed. In some places there were many close 
together, and again they were scattered yards apart, while now 
and then there were large spaces where there were none at all. 
Under ordinary conditions the water over all this area would 
have been two or three, nowhere over four, feet deep, with a 
thick growth of bull-rushes, (S¢cz7fus) standing well above the sur- 
face. But heavy rains had raised the lake until the water was in 
