6 4 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



before the middle of June. " One of the most peculiar aud interesting facts," 

 writes Seebohm, " in the history of Bonaparte's Gull is its singular manner of 

 nesting. Though obviously so closely allied to the Little Gull and the Black- 

 headed Gull, it seldom appears to make its nest on the ground in a swamp, but 

 generally on tall trees and bushes up to twenty feet from the ground." The nest 

 is composed of sticks with a lining of dry moss and lichen ; and in it are laid three 

 dark olive-brown eggs, evenly spotted over with reddish- and greyish-brown spots, in 

 size about 2 inches long by if in diameter. From them, in some three weeks time, 

 there emerge fluffy balls of yellowish down, spotted with brown. When the yo-ung 

 are fledged they don a dress much mottled and marked with brown on the back, 

 and having the crown brownish-grey. As the birds become older the brown 

 becomes somewhat lighter, but very marked on the wing-coverts and secondaries ; 

 tail with a subterminal band ; brownish-black bands on the primaries ; bill pale 

 corneous. These markings continue for two or three years, becoming less and 

 less, however, till, in its third and sometimes its fourth spring, the Gull attains 

 its full plumage, and is ready to begin to breed. Every winter, thereafter, the 

 dark hood is lost and replaced by grey-mottled-white feathers, darkest over the ears. 

 "Go where we may in North America," writes Coues, "this pretty bird may 

 be seen at one or another season, if we are not too far from any inconsiderable 

 body of water. The Gull holds its own from the Labrador crags, against which 

 the waves of an angered ocean ceaselessly beat, to the low, sandy shores of the 

 Gulf, caressed by the soothing billows of a tropical sea. It follows the sinuosities 

 of the two coasts with wonderful pertinacity, making excursions up every bay and 

 estuary, and threads the course of all our three great rivers, while performing its 

 remarkably extensive migrations." While in North Carolina, Dr. Coues observed 

 these birds, in spring, on their northern migration. " From the first of April to 



the twenty-second great numbers were over the bay, with a decided 



preponderance of full plumaged individuals. Then without any marked change 

 in the weather or other apparent cause, none were to be seen for a week or ten 

 days. The first week in May, however, they became more numerous than ever, 

 and what seemed singular, the last lot was entirely composed of young birds . . 

 Evidently the old birds, hurrying north to breed, led the van, and the young, 

 with no such important business on hand, came trooping leisurely in the rear. 

 The question was, what would these young birds do the ensuing summer ? would 

 they reach the boreal regions to which the great majority of the perfect fertile 

 birds repair, after loitering so late on the Carolina coast ? or did they only propose 

 to go part way, spend the winter frolicking, and return with soberer intentions 

 for another year? I doubt that any breed until they are full plumaged." 



