BONAPARTIAN GULL. 555 



tidal portion of the river Lagan, between Ormeau Bridge 

 and the Botanic Garden, about a mile above the lowest 

 bridge at the town of Belfast, on the 1st of February, 

 1848. It was flying singly. The person who shot the bird, 

 attracted by its pretty appearance merely, left it to be 

 preserved with a taxidermist, who, on receipt of any birds 

 either rare or unknown to him, was in the habit of taking 

 them to Mr. Thompson for his inspection. The bird was 

 therefore examined previous to its being skinned, and 

 exact measurements were made ; another example was 

 shot in Ireland, on the coast, near the Skerries. A speci- 

 men was obtained on Loch Lomond in 1851 ; another 

 on one of the lakes of England ; and one or more besides 

 those here enumerated, have been procured since the pub- 

 lication of the first occurrence of the species. 



For further particulars of the habits and habitats of 

 this new visitor, I refer to Mr. Audubon's History of the 

 Birds of America, in which we are told " that no sooner do 

 the Shad and Old-wives enter the bays and rivers of our 

 middle districts, than this Gull begins to show itself on 

 the coast, following these fishes as if dependent upon 

 them for support, and after the 1st of April, thousands 

 of Bonapartian Gulls are seen gambolling over the waters 

 of Chesapeake Bay, and proceeding eastward, keeping 

 pace with the shoals of the fishes. 



" During my stay at Eastport in Maine, in May, 1833, 

 these Gulls were to be seen in vast numbers in the har- 

 bour of Passamaquody at high water, and in equal quanti- 

 ties at low water on all the sand and mud-bars in the 

 neighbourhood. They were extremely gentle, scarcely 

 heeded us, and flew around our boats so close that any 

 number might have been procured. My son John shot 

 seventeen of them at a single discharge of his double- 

 barrelled gun, but all of them proved to be young birds 



